Tornilla wood, also known as Cedrelinga catenaeformis, huayra caspi, aguano, and cedrorana, is a tree species in the legume family ( Fabaceae ).
People often cut down trees in the wild for their wood, an important building material used locally and exported. The tree is being tested to see if it can grow in plantations.
Tornillo is a South American wood yet to be well-known in Europe. It lives in the Amazon basin, from the eastern part of Peru to the lower Amazon River in the Brazilian state of Para.
Even though wood has average properties, It has numerous applications and is important to the wood industry, particularly in Peru.
The tree is one of the most important parts of national and international plans to improve managed forest resources in tropical America. It has a good chance of growing well and being good quality.
Evenly yellowish to pinkish-brown, with a simple color and structure. Most of the wood is free of knots, so the only thing that stands out on the surface is the pore grooves.
Heartwood is light brown with pink or orange glints. It is hard to tell where the 5–8 cm wide band of lighter sapwood ends, and the heartwood begins.
The texture is rough, and the grain is straight, interlocked, or sometimes wavy. Dry pieces don’t have a smell or taste, but fresh-cut wood is said to give off an unpleasant smell when worked.
The wood can be made into beams, columns, tongue-and-groove, furniture, and turn objects. It is also used in carpentry, floors, interior cladding, parquet, plywood, parquet, making boxes, moldings, formwork, and laminates.
Because of its qualities, it could replace Oregon Pine. It can be used with wood-cement board and particle board.
Tornillo wood is a hardwood, but it works well with regular tools. The surfaces can be fuzzy, so filling them is recommended for a better finish. Nailing and screwing aren’t good, but that depends on how heavy the wood is. Gluing, on the other hand, is fine.
Geography
This species is from Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Surinam, and French Guiana. It lives in forests, usually on slopes and hillsides with moist soil. High savannah forests and rainforests on soils made of granite.
Some soil bacteria live in harmony with this species. These bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix nitrogen from the air. Some of this nitrogen is used by the plant itself, but nearby plants can also use some.
For about 25 years, different forest and agroforest management systems in the Amazon and other South and Central American countries have been used to try to plant Cedrorana with success.
Tornillo Wood identification
Tornilla is a tree that can grow between 30 and 46 meters tall and has an open, round crown. With buttresses, the straight, cylindrical bole can be unbranched for most of its height and measure between 70 and 120 cm in diameter.
The weight and strength of Tornillo wood can change depending on where it grows and how it is grown. It is usually categorized as a wood that is about average in weight and strength.
Color and appearance
Heartwood is a light to golden brown color. Face grain surfaces also look like they have a lot of veins because they have very large, open pores. Sapwood is rarely seen, and its lighter color changes gradually into darker heartwood.
Grain and texture
The grain is straight or just a little bit tangled. The texture is coarse and uniform, and the natural shine is average. Endgrain is diffusely porous, with single and multiple pores in a radial pattern.
The pores are very large, but there aren’t many of them, and they aren’t arranged in any particular way. Reddish brown mineral and gum deposits are common. The parenchyma is vasicentric, with narrow rays and normal to close spacing.
Tornillo wood bark
Dark brown, rough bark, leathery rhytidome; peels off in 1 cm thick, rectangular, corky plates above the fins. The living bark is about 5 mm thick, has a pinkish color, and feels sandy.
The bark is used to make camphor, and when it is mashed, the native people make foam from it that they use as soap, to wash their hair to get rid of dandruff, and as a medicine when they are sick.
Rot resistance
The wood is not too heavy, not too soft, not too hard, not too flexible, and not too resistant to fungi. However, it is vulnerable to dry wood borers and termites.
Strength and Durability
The strength of the wood is about the same as that of the American elm (Ulmus americana). The heartwood is said to be pretty strong and resistant to weather effects.
The unprotected heartwood is moderately resistant to fungi and insects (class 3 according to EN 350-2), but it should not be in direct contact with the ground. Like oak, damp wood changes a lot when it comes into contact with ferrous metals.
Tornillo wood workability
Tornillo wood, with smooth surfaces and sharp edges, can be used with any tool, hand, or machine. The surfaces that have been planed are smooth and slightly shiny. When wood is nailed, it tends to split, but screws and glue hold well.
It’s easy to cut and peel tornillo wood. The wood has good staying power because it shrinks and changes moisture at an average rate.
When things are stacked carefully, they dry quickly and don’t crack or warp much. Based on the little information we have, technical drying is also not a problem.
Transparent alkyd-based paint systems work well on exterior wood parts that aren’t exposed to driving rain and direct sun.
To protect against strong sunlight and heavy rain, you should use glazes with UV-absorbing pigments.
Covering coats of paint made from alkyds or dispersions is also possible, but because the surfaces are so porous, they need to be prepared carefully with pore fillers to get a smooth finish.
Tornillo wood uses
Furniture:
In traditional furniture and outdoor furniture, as well as in carpentry, packaging, and the bodies of light vehicles. Profile wood is used for paneling on the inside and outside of buildings.
Tornillo wood is easy to treat with common methods and materials used in interior design and furniture makings, such as stains, mats, lacquers, or waxes.
Veneer:
Peeled and used as plywood in areas that don’t get wet; glued and coated to make it waterproof for use outdoors; cut into strips for cassettes, panels, and fronts of simple utility furniture.
Tornillo wood is a medium-weight, pink to medium-brown wood that can be used in place of a wide range of domestic and imported light construction woods, such as those used to build frames and furniture.
Tornillo wood Alternatives
Here is a list of woods that could be used instead of tornillo wood. We also do a lot of research on the things that can be used instead of tornillo wood. So far, this is what we’ve come up with.
Ziricote wood
Ziricote is a heavy wood with a pattern that is often beautiful and odd. The wood is often used as a veneer or to make guitars. The wood is tough but easy to turn.
Zebra wood
Zebrano wood gets its name from the stripes that run through it, which look like a zebra’s stripes. So, it’s not strange that this kind of wood is called “zebra wood” in the U.S.
These lines stand out most on quarter-sawn and false quarter-sawn wood. Because zebrano timber comes from the tropics, it can be used outdoors.
Ebony wood
The surface of the ebony is very smooth and easy to work with. If you wax or oil it, you will get the best results. It is tough, has a short thread, and doesn’t break apart often.
Ebony is used to making jewelry boxes and decorations. It is also used to make the edges of floors.
