If you are looking for a specific type of wood to use for your next woodworking project, one type to consider is Narra. This is a fairly popular type of wood used for a variety of purposes, but how strong is it?
Today, we want to figure out how strong Narra is, if it is a hardwood or softwood, and what its various properties are.
Is Narra a Hardwood or Softwood?
Narra is a type of hardwood that is often used for furniture, cabinetry, boat building, veneer, turned objects, plywood, and specialty wood items. This is a type of hardwood that is native to Southeast Asia, northern Australasia, and the western Pacific Ocean islands.
By all means, it is a fairly strong and durable type of wood.
Narra Wood Strength: All You Need to Know
The strength of wood can generally be based on five main factors. These include compressive strength, bending strength, stiffness, hardness, and density. Therefore, we are going to evaluate Narra wood based on all five factors, and then also compare it to a few other popular types to see where it stands in the grand scheme of things.
Compressive Strength
The compressive strength of Narra wood is 8,270 lbf per square inch (57 MPa). This is stronger than virtually all types of softwood out there.
For instance, this is stronger than spruce, pine, and Douglas fir. It also happens to be higher than most types of mahogany, teak, and maple. There are a select few types of wood that are stronger in this sense, including ones like ironwood and ebony.
The compressive strength of wood refers to how much weight a certain piece of wood can take parallel to its grain. This may also be called the crushing strength. To visualize this, imagine a table leg standing upright. How much weight can you put on that vertical table leg before it buckles and snaps?
Bending Strength
The bending strength of Narra wood is 13,970 lbf per square inch (96.3 MPA). For instance, this is much stronger than pine, spruce, Douglas fir, and most other types of softwood. It is also stronger than hard maple. Although, it is not stronger than teak or ebony.
This measurement may also be referred to as the modulus of rupture. Whereas compressive strength is about how much weight a piece of wood can take parallel to the grain, the modulus of rupture is about how much it can take perpendicular to the grain.
To visualize this, imagine hanging a stick horizontally on a wall so that it sticks out. How much weight can you hang on the end of that stick before it snaps and crashes downwards?
Stiffness
Narra wood features a stiffness of 1,724,000 lbf per square inch (11.89 GPa). It is therefore much stiffer than virtually all types of softwood out there, although comparatively weak or flexible when compared to many types of hardwood. Hard maple, teak, and ebony all have higher stiffness ratings.
Stiffness is also called the modulus of elasticity. This refers to how much weight a piece of wood can hold before it begins to sag or bend in the middle.
To visualize this, imagine a piece of wood being supported by two bricks on either side. If you stand in the middle of that board, how much weight or force do you need to apply to make it bend or sag?
Hardness
Narra features a hardness rating of 1,260 lbf. This is much stronger than virtually all types of softwood. It also happens to be stronger than regular Burmese teak. However, it is weaker than hard maple and ebony.
We then have the hardness of wood, which refers to how hard the outer surface is, and specifically how resilient it is towards denting and scratching. This is generally measured on the Janka hardness scale.
Density
Narra weighs 41 lbs per cubic foot (655 kilograms per cubic meter). That is much lighter than most types of softwood out there. Teak weighs about the same, and hard maple and ebony are both heavier.
This measurement refers to how heavy the wood is based on a certain area. This is generally measured either with pounds per cubic foot or kilograms per cubic meter. Knowing how dense a piece of wood is does relate to its durability, as well as how easy it is to work with.
Is Narra Strong?
In the grand scheme of things, if we are talking about the crushing strength, modulus of elasticity, and those other factors, Narra wood is decently strong. What we can say is that it is much stronger than virtually all types of softwood, especially those that exist in North America.
Furthermore, it is also stronger than a select few types of hardwood found in North America. However, as you can see from our comparison, there are also many other types of wood that are much stronger than Narra.
So, in the grand scheme of things, we would say that Narra wood has medium to high strength. It is solid compared to virtually all types of softwood, and just medium strength when compared to other types of hardwood.
Summary
Narra is a type of hardwood that is moderately strong on all fronts. It makes for a decent choice for a wide variety of purposes, and it even does pretty well outdoors too. It may not be the number one strongest type of wood out there, but its high moisture resistance does have its benefits.