Jatoba

Category: 1

Wood density at 12% moisture content (kg): 950

Also known as: Locust, Courbaril, Jutai

Botanical name: Hymenaea spp.

Origin: Central and South America, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Trinidad, Panama, Surinam, Columbia

Use: Solid furniture, veneer furniture, parquet floors, decorative interior elements, or construction

Used for:

  • Construction material
  • Interior constructions /partitions, crossbeams, window crossbeams, etc./
  • Floor parquets – very decorative – interior and exterior cladding and wood siding
  • Lathe machine products, handles of various tools, mallets
  • For veneers and marquetry
  • Shipbuilding
  • Musical instruments
  • Artistic carving, sculpture

Durability: Very durable. Jatoba tolerates weather fluctuations well. It is moderately resistant to termites and resistant to molds, fungi and insects.

Wood description: Jatoba has gray-brown sapwood – 6 – 12 cm wide. Heartwood: orange to dark red brown, also purple-toned, often dark veined (veins about 1 cm wide) The wood is very hard, about 2x harder than oak, heavy and durable

Wood treatment:

Cutting: easier than its hardness would suggest, disruption by cutting – average
Drying: slow, risk of cracking
Workability: necessary use of hard metal tools
Bonding/gluing: demanding
Nailing/hammering: necessary to pre-drill holes