Tropical Hardwood — Catalog

Tropical Hardwood

Tropical hardwoods are the densest woods in commercial use, and that density is the whole point. A wood grown slowly in a tropical climate packs its cell structure tight enough that water, fungi, and insects struggle to get in — so it resists rot and termites with no preservative, no pressure treatment, and no chemistry at all. The same property makes it hard underfoot and dimensionally sound in weather.

The species here span a wide range of hardness and color: Ipe (olive brown, ~3,680 Janka), Cumaru (medium brown, ~3,200), Massaranduba and South Pacific Redwood (deep red, ~3,190), Batu (mahogany-like red-brown, ~2,100), Bangkirai (golden, ~1,798), Angelim Pedra (~1,720), and Angelique.

The alternative route to the same durability is thermal modification, which engineers stability into a lighter, softer wood.