Albarco (Cariniana)

Albarco is an imported hardwood

Location

Albarco, or jequitiba as it is known in Brazil, is the common name applied to species in the genus Cariniana. The 10 species are distributed from eastern Peru and northern Bolivia through central Brazil to Venezuela and Colombia. The heartwood is reddish or purplish brown and sometimes has dark streaks. It is usually not sharply demarcated from the pale brown sapwood. The texture is medium and the grain straight to interlocked. Albarco can be worked satisfactorily with only slight blunting of tool cutting edges because of the presence of silica. Veneer can be cut without difficulty.

Characteristics

The wood is rather strong and moderately heavy, weighing about 560 kg/m3 (35 lb/ft3) at 12% moisture content. In general, the wood has about the same strength as that of U.S. oaks (Quercus spp.). The heartwood is durable, particularly the deeply colored material. It has good resistance to drywood termite attack.

Primary Uses

Albarco is primarily used for general construction and carpentry wood, but it can also be used for furniture components, shipbuilding, flooring, veneer for plywood, and turnery.

*Much of the base wood information presented here is made available by the USDA FPL FS. If you are interested in a much more technical description of wood properties, I encourage you to visit the source.