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Thread: Bocoa prouacensis
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21st January 2018, 02:17 PM #1Senior Member
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Bocoa prouacensis
Hi Folks,
Bocoa prouacensis is one of the densest woods/timbers in the world. Some boards made from it just arrived from Suriname. The pictures below have the correct color. The sapwood has an orange tint. The longer boards are 8 feet (2.44 meters). If you need some, the only importer of which I am aware is Amazon Exotic Hardwoods in Florida.
IMG_0655.jpgIMG_0656.jpgIMG_0653.jpgIMG_0654.jpg
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21st January 2018 02:17 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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22nd January 2018, 09:42 AM #2Senior Member
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Sorry for any confusion here ...
The boards in the pictures are not for sale. I posted the pictures because Bocoa prouacensis needs more attention and you will be hard pressed to find any pictures of big boards of this species anywhere. it's not like there are many around. Apparently, this species was selling fairly well in China until recently.
There are an estimated 125.7 million of these trees essentially confined to Suriname and French Guiana. The tree diameters reach 50cm-60cm but the sapwood is very thick; 10-15cm. Here's a picture from the web of what I am reasonably sure are Boco logs:
YZH-Round-Logs.jpg
You can imagine that wide boards are tough to get but the tree can reach 30m so 2.4m boards are possible. If you want some of this wood, the only source of which I am aware is here. Here are some pictures from French Guiana of the trees. Again, the wood is very dense:
or
or
Last edited by Runge; 22nd January 2018 at 09:48 AM. Reason: mistakes
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22nd January 2018, 12:46 PM #3Senior Member
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Hi Folks,
It's been said before but I wanted to show you this:
Notice that it says "LE BOCO d'Aprouak." So, between Cayenne and the Brazilian Boarder with French Guiana, along the Atlantic is the Approuague River. This is where the tree is common. Now lets play with words.
Begin with
BOCO || d'Aprouak || censis
to get
BOCOA || proua || censis
The most similar wood to Boco is Zollernia paraensis (Pau Santo) . However, Pau Santo is nearly black and the sapwood is whiter without that orange tint. Boco is also a bit more dense. The dirty black color is what most boards look like and the sapwood on the second board is the right color for the species. There are an estimated 120.9 million Zollernia paraensis trees out there.
Unfortunately, Zollernia paraensis is no longer imported into the U.S. That goes for a lot of other heavyweights ... that importer also brought in Aniba canelilla & Chamaecrista scleroxylon.
232.jpgZ_paraensis_1371.jpgimg_1303.jpg
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26th January 2018, 09:43 PM #4Senior Member
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I think that you might find that shipping and customs might be too expensive for most people in Aus when it comes to importing heavy and long timbers from overseas.
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27th January 2018, 02:03 AM #5Senior Member
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Hi Wood Collector,
What can I say? My principal intent of the thread was to put out some information on a virtually invisible wood species. I am told that I have been the only one who has requested Boco lumber. Most people want small pieces. The same thing is likely true of Libidibia sclerocarpa. Any exceptional wood that isn't mainstream will not be easy to source or purchase. If ease of purchase where a criterion for posting here, the discussion would get pretty boring.
If you think Boco lumber is expensive, what do you think a similar pile of Gidgee lumber would cost (if you could even find anyone who had it to sell) someone outside of Australia??
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28th January 2018, 12:41 PM #6Senior Member
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Let me answer my own question. If lumber were to cost $AUD14/kg, then
<style type="text/css"> body,div,table,thead,tbody,tfoot,tr,th,td,p { font-family:"Arial"; font-size:x-small } </style>kg/m^3 kg/SF $AUD/SF $USD/SF 1250 2.950 41.30 33.49 1260 2.973 41.63 33.75 1270 2.997 41.96 34.02 1280 3.020 42.29 34.29 1290 3.044 42.62 34.56 1300 3.068 42.95 34.83 1310 3.091 43.28 35.09 1320 3.115 43.61 35.36 1330 3.138 43.94 35.63 1340 3.162 44.27 35.90 1350 3.186 44.60 36.17
So, if 50% of the timber is clean, we're up at about $USD70/SF (0.8109 USD = 1.0 AUD today). The Boco boards were $USD40/SF ($AUD49.33/SF) and Boco is denser than Gidgee.
The bottom line is that first world nations cannot compete with third world labor rates!!Last edited by Runge; 28th January 2018 at 12:43 PM. Reason: Oversized image
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28th January 2018, 03:21 PM #7Senior Member
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It looks quite similar to katalox (swartzia cubensis)...do you have any idea how they compare as far as far as workability and available sizes?
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28th January 2018, 11:09 PM #8Senior Member
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Hi fudo133,
Katalox is genetically close to Boco. This clip shows it well.
cardoso2013a.jpg
I can't offer much insight into workability except to say that the Boco should be quite a bit harder (where it's compared to Ipe). I think Ipe (often Handroanthus serratifolius) is probably a tiny bit denser than Katalox.
As to availablility, Katalox is far easier to get than Boco. Over the last decade, I am only aware of one importer who brought Boco in and actually was able to correctly identify it.
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