LOG CHARACTERISTICS
A rather small tree (height up to 20-25 metres, diameter at breast-height 1.20 metres). The trunk is often curved and knotty with modest butt buttresses; not very regular.

APPEARANCE OF THE WOOD TO THE NAKED EYE
colour:
narrow white sapwood clearly differentiated from the heartwood which in general appears brown forming narrow concentric rings of dark brown fibrous tissue decisively tending to black on exposure to the air with alternating lighter rings of parenchyma alone. This particular structure makes the radial cross-sections appear as a succession of thin, parallel, alternating brown and black lines while the tangent cross-section presents wider, definitely more irregular bands.
texture:
from medium to course.
grain:
generally straight.

PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Volumetric weight at 12% humidity:
from 0,63 to 0,98 g/cm3 average value 840 kg/m3;
shrinkage:
vvariable (generally medium);
nerve:
high, despite the fact that the wood adapts very slowly to ambient humidity.

DATA ON THE TIMBER SPECIES
hardness:
janca 915;
axial compressive strength:
from 620  to 1020 kp/cm2 average value 860 kp/cm2;
bending strength:
da 1100 a 2600 kp/cm2 average value 1800 kp/cm2;
flexion modulus of elasticity:
average value 173.000 kp/cm2;
shock and wear resistance:
high;
parting:
from medium to very high.
durability:
Apart from the sapwood that cannot be used, the heartwood is particularly enduring to biological agents of any nature.