Merbau Wood

Intsia spp., is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, native to the Indo-Pacific. It ranges from Tanzania and Madagascar east through India and Queensland, Australia to the Pacific island of Samoa. It grows to around 50 metres (160 feet) tall with a highly buttressed trunk. It inhabits mangrove forests.

The enduring beauty of engineered timber grants effortless style to any room or space. Merbau offers a wide range of colour variability from light through to dark browns. Many pieces will have a yellow dust in the pores that show up as an attractive gold "flecking" when finished. It comes with a lifetime structural and an extensive durability. With its easy maintenance, non-allergenic and pre-finished timber, you can't go past merbau!

Merbau is a large tree with an average height of 50’ feet tall. The Merbau trunk can grow up to more than 5’ feet wide. Merbau undergoes a medium to large degree of colour change, with the muting of the colour variation from when fresh milled and with darkening over time to deeper orangey colour. Merbau wood texture is mostly fairly coarse. Merbau wood usually has straight to slightly interlocked, wavy grain. Some of the merbau wood flooring has an attractive, ribbon figuring.

Solid Merbau Wood Advantages

·         Durability and strength

·         Excellent dimensional stability to moisture

·         Termite-resistant wood

·         Attractive ribbon-like grain texture

·         Structural stability, lifetime structure

·          Beautiful golden-yellowish “fleck” that exhibits a shiny look.

Thanks to its wonderful hardness and strength, and its durability to moisture, the merbau wood is being used in a lot of places in the wood industry. Today we can find furniture, cabinets, joinery and musical instruments made of merbau and of course merbau wood floorings and decking.

SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION Botanical Name: Intsia spp. (Caesalpiniaceae family) Indonesian Names: Merbau, merbo, taritih (Java); marbon, merbau asam, merbau darat, merbau pantai (Sumatra); alai, anglai, ipil, jumelai, maharau, merbau (Borneo); Bayam, gefi, ipi, ipil, langgiri, ogifi (Celebes); aisele, dowora, falai, ipi, ipil, kayu besi (Moluccas); Doma, fimpi, ipi, ipir (East Nusa Tenggara); bau, kayu besi, pas, sekka (Papua). Common name: Go-nuoc (Viet Nam); Ipil, Ipil laut (Pl); Kwila (Papua New Guine); Lumpho, Lumpaw, Maka-mong(Thailand); Moluccan iron-wood (United Kingdom); Mirabow (United Kingdom, USA); Inzia (ltalia); Moluks ijzerhou (NI); Merbau (France, Germany, Italia, NI, Spain, Sweden). Geographical Distribution: All over Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes, West Java, Central Java, Moluccas, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua(Irian Jaya). Habitus: The tree stands 40 m tall, the clear bole is 4 to 30 m long, and the diameter is 100 cm. The buttress root is 4 m tall and 4 m width. The outside bark color is gray, gray to brown, light brown or light red. I. bijuga has shallow grooves bark. I. palambanica hasn't grove bark. The bark some peeled and some has a lot of peeled. The bark is tights and has black or dark red resin. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS Colour: The heartwood is brown-gray, brown-yellow, brown-red or black. The sapwood is light yellow. The sapwood has 5 - 7,5 cm tights. The sapwood can be differed from heartwood. Texture: The wood texture is evenly coarse. Grain: The grain is straight or occasionally slightly interlocked. Touch: The wood surface is smooth. Gloss: The wood surface is glossy. STRUCTURE Vessels: The vessels is spread, solitary and in grouped of 2 to 3 in radial direction, rarely clustered, The diameter is 150-200 cm, the frequency is 1 to 2 per mm2. Parenchyma: The apotracheal parenchyma has the shape of complete borders to the vessels. Rays: The rays are uniseriate and multiseriate, 50 to 125 m wide, 300 to 400 m high, and have frequency of 4 to 6 per mm. Fibres: The fibre length is 1181 m with a diameter of 21.6 m. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES Specific gravity: 0.84 (0.63 - 1.04) g/cm3  Strength class: II Shrinkage: Shrinkage to oven-dry condition of I. bijuga is 3.3% (Radial) and 4.1% (Tangential). Shrinkage to air-dry condition of I. palembanica is 0.6% (Radial) and 0.7% (Tangential). Fibre Saturation Point: 24 % MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Bending strength 115 mPa 16679 psi Modulus of elasticity 15440 mPa 2239 1000psi Crushing strength 74 mPa 10733 psi JANKA Hardness 8.56 kN 1925 lbs force note: at 12% moisture content CHEMICAL PROPERTIES (I. bijuga) Content Cellulose 46.9% Lignin 22.6% Pentosan 17.1% Ash 0.9% Silica 0.2% Solubility Alcohol-benzene 5.6% Cold water 11.3% Hot water 8.2% 1% NaOH 2.9% DURABILITY AND TREATABILITY Durability: Fungi - Class 1 - 2  - Very Durable to Durable Dry Wood Borers - Heartwood durable Termites - Class D - Durable Treatability: Merbau wood is difficult to treat. DRYING Merbau wood can be dried satisfactorily without incurring significant defect. Air seasoning: Seasoning of 2.5 cm thick I. palembanica boards up to air-dry condition and humidity 15% takes 82 days respectively. Kiln Drying: Recommended drying temperature and relative humidity are 43-71C and 83-38%. WORKING PROPERTIES Sawing/Machining; Sawing is difficult as wood clogs saw teeth and dulls cutting edges; carbide tooling recommended. Sanding: Sands satisfactorily. Nailing: Good holding ability. Finishing: Wood stains black in contact with ferrous metals or moisture. COMMON USES Merbau wood is mainly used for flooring, furniture, paneling, fine joinery, decorative turnery, cabinet making, musical instruments, and specialty items. The wood is also a dye source.