Exotic Wood

This is the one group in the wood database that is not a botanical split. Every species listed here is botanically a hardwood as well — they come from broad-leaved trees and carry the same vessel structure. What separates them is that they are not North American, so in the trade they are bought, graded and priced as imported species.

The split exists here because it changes what the reader needs to know. Locally grown hardwoods are bought by domestic grade rules that assume the material dried where it grew. Imported stock arrives with a different grading convention, a much longer supply chain and often a moisture content that has to be re-established before machining — which is why an entry can read as dense and stable on paper and still move after it is cut.

Density in this group spans the widest range in the whole database: balsa at 0.16 g/cm³ is the lightest entry anywhere, and ipe at 1.00 g/cm³ is heavy enough to sink. Two entries in this group are also the ones most likely to be restricted on import, since several Dalbergia and Swietenia species are trade-controlled.

• Overlaps the Hardwood group by definition — a species here would be listed as a hardwood if the split were botanical. The group is origin, and the page states that rather than hiding it.
• Density figures for imported stock carry a wider tolerance than domestic species, because a single trade name often covers several species with different properties.

Imported species, grouped by trade origin rather than by botany. Every entry here is botanically a hardwood as well — the split is that these are not North American species, which is how they are bought and sold.

• Ipe — 1 g/cm³ · 1000 kg/m³
• Rosewood (East Indian) — 0.85 g/cm³ · 850 kg/m³
• Teak — 0.63 g/cm³ · 630 kg/m³
• Mahogany (Honduran) — 0.55 g/cm³ · 550 kg/m³
• Balsa — 0.16 g/cm³ · 160 kg/m³