Wood Species

Tigerwood
Astronium fraxinifolium

Also known as: Bois de Zebre, Bossona, Goncalo Alves, Mura, Kingwood, Urunday-para, Zebrawood, Zorrowood

Origin: Latin America, mainly Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Appearance:

The sapwood of tigerwood is brownish-white to dirty gray, while the heartwood is reddish-brown to light golden-brown in color. The species has a mottled, wavy or interlocked, irregular grain. Tigerwood has a medium to dull luster and is fine in texture.

Properties:

Tigerwood is a highly durable wood with a high resistance to beetle attack. The wood remains dimensionally stable and is reported to have no odor. Tigerwood is time consuming to dry properly while preventing degrade.

Janka Hardness: 1850

As a flooring choice, tigerwood is one of the harder and more durable woods. It falls between hickory or pecan and purpleheart in hardness, is nearly ninety-six percent as hard as merbau, is a little over twenty-seven percent harder than hard maple, and is about eighty-four percent as hard as santos mahogany's ranking of 2200.

Workability:

Tigerwood is difficult to saw properly and requires carbide-tipped blades. Pre-boring is suggested yet the wood holds nails well once applied. Glue holds well, but presetting is suggested with tigerwood flooring. This species sands fairly easily but care should be taken as it can scratch somewhat easily in the process. Tigerwood takes polishing very easily.

Main Uses:

Tigerwood's uses include flooring, boat building, fine furniture, paneling, plywood, and shutters.

What is a Janka Rating?

"It is one of the best measures of the ability of a wood species to withstand denting and wear. It is also a good indicator of how hard a species is to saw or nail.

The hardness of wood usually varies with the direction of the wood grain.

A common use of Janka hardness ratings is to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring."

Colored Bamboo

Some species have different janka ratings depending on how they have been treated.

Bamboo is one example of this. If left with a natural finish, Bamboo falls at 1380 on the hardness scale. If you carbonize it to get a darker color, the rank falls to 1180.