Jatoba Wood
Jatoba Wood Lumber is best known as “Brazilian Cherry” Lumber in the hardwood flooring industry. Jatoba Wood Lumber’s other uses include handles and other applications where good shock resistance is needed, steam-bent parts, flooring, turnery, furniture and cabinet work, railroad cross-ties tree-nails, gear cogs, wheel rims, and other specialty items.
Jatoba Wood is exceptionally stiff, strong, and hard—representing a great value for woodworkers seeking high-strength, low-cost lumber.
Stock Information
Species Information
- GRADES: FAS/SEL
- CUTS: Mixed Grain
- SIZES: 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 8/4
- DRYING: Kiln-Dried (KD)
- OTHER NAMES: Brazilian Cherry
- ORIGIN: Brazil, Peru
- APPEARANCE: Heartwood is salmon red to orange brown when fresh, becoming russet to reddish brown when seasoned; often marked with dark streaks. Sapwood is usually wide; white, gray, or pinkish. Texture is medium to rather coarse; grain mostly interlocked with a golden luster
- DENSITY: Janka scale hardness ranges from 2,350 to 3,290 for dry material
- WEIGHT: 52 – 61 lbs. / cu. ft., or approximately 4.3 – 5.1 lbs. per board foot
- DRYING: The wood is rated as slightly difficult to air-dry; it seasons at a fast to moderate rate with only slight checking and warp.
- WORKABILITY: Jatoba is moderately difficult to saw and machine largely because of its high density, but except in planing it can be machined to a smooth surface. The wood is somewhat difficult to plane because of the interlocked grain. It is easy to glue and finish satisfactorily; steam-bending properties comparable to white oak
- DURABILITY: Very resistant to brown-rot and white-rot fungi. Heartwood is also rated very resistant to dry-wood termites; little resistance to marine borers
- PRESERVATION: Heartwood is not treatable using open-tank or pressure-vacuum systems. Sapwood, however, is responsive
- FINISHING: Finishes well