Hardwood & Clear Grade Softwood Timber Suppliers

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Smee Timber Ltd is established as one of Britain's leading and most comprehensive hardwood importing and manufacturing companies, offering an enormous choice of timber to manufacturers and users.

 

 

 

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Virola

TROPICAL HARDWOOD

 Virola Timber

Family:

 Myristicaceae

Latin Name:

 Virola

Distribution:

 V. surinamensis grows in Guyana, French Guiana, Surinam ,Venezuela, and the Amazon region of northern Brazil. It grows in some of the southern Werst Indes from Guadeloupe to Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago.
V. sebifera ranges from Nicaragua through northern South America as far as Peru, Bolivia, and southern Brazil.
V. melinonii is found mostly in northern South America.
V. koschnyi ranges from Belize and Guatemala to Panama.

Uses:

 Mouldings, Furniture, Plywood

General Description:
Light virola is very common in the swamp and marsh forests of Surinam and is a frequent to locally common tree throughout Guyana in the riparian, mora, and marsh forests It is abundant in the islands of the Amazon estuary of Brazil. The tree is heavily buttressed, of medium to large size, attaining a height of 42.Om and a diameter of 1.5m under favourable conditions, but usually is much shorter, with a cylindrical bole clear of branches to between 1 8.0m and 24.0m and about 1.0m in diameter.  

Mechanical Properties:
Medium - Light virola works easily and very satisfactorily. It nails, screws and glues well, and can be stained without difficulty to resemble mahogany fairly well, it gives satisfactory results in polishing and varnishing. When properly dried it holds its place well when manufactured, with practically no tendency to warp or check.  

Seasoning:
Light virola has a high shrinkage ratio by comparison with Honduras mahogany. In drying from the green to oven dry condition, light virola shrinks 4.8 - 5.3 per cent radially, 12.4 - 13.4 per cent tangentially, and 17.6 per cent volumetrically, against corresponding values of 3.5, 4.8, and 7.7 per cent respectively for the mahogany. The wood accordingly has a strong tendency to cup and split radially, and for thick stock to retain its moisture despite rapid surface drying. However, provided care is taken, the wood should dry with a minimum of degrade.  

Durability:
In the air dry condition, light virola is superior to Honduras mahogany in stiffness and shock resistance, but is inferior to that timber in other strength properties, being closer to those of American whitewood (Liriodendron) in bending strength and gradually applied loads, but inferior to that species in crushing strength and in shock loading.  

Other Names: