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Pucte

A very heavy, high-density hardwood tough enough for ship keels and bridges — resistant to impact, rot, and termites, with striking olive-brown streaking.

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580 Density (kg/m³)

654 Rupture resistance (kg/cm²)

01 Native regions

654 Bending strength

About Pucte

Pucte showcases a striking range of color — yellowish to greenish-brown, often carrying an olive hue, with interwoven grain that forms distinctive longitudinal stripes running through the board. It's a very heavy wood with high resistance to impact, and its density and natural silica content make it genuinely demanding to work with standard tools — reinforced, carbide-tipped tooling is recommended when cutting given its density, and pre-drilling is advised before nailing or screwing. The payoff is a smooth, glossy finish once you've gotten past the roughing stage, along with real versatility: it's equally at home in heavy-duty flooring, furniture, and interior trim as it is in marine construction, including ship keels and bridges, particularly in environments free of marine borers. Naturally resistant to fungal and termite attack, though not to marine borers specifically.

Shady Lady
Black Olive
Bullet Tree
Gregory Wood

At a glance

Origin: Bahamas, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Central Mexico, Southeast/Southwest Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela
Category: Outdoor Furniture · Flooring · Marine
Best for: Residential flooring, furniture
Working properties: Resistant to dry-wood termites. Durable in ground contact. Relatively resistant to decay. Moderately easy to season considering its very high density. Prone to torn grain during planing. Difficult to saw and machine because of its density. Capable of taking a very smooth finish.

Spec sheet

Physical-mechanical properties

Physical-mechanical values for Pucte from the approved Final Content document.

Basic Density 850 kg/m³

Specific Gravity 0.75–0.93

Air-Dry Density ≈ 69 lb/ft³ (1.02 g/cm³ per ITTO)*

Radial Shrinkage 4.4%

Tangential Shrinkage 7.9%

Volumetric Shrinkage 12.2%

Texture Fine to medium

Grain Often interlocked

Wood Character Very hard, very strong

Durability Durable

MOE — Bending 141,000 kg/cm² (13.83 GPa)

Elastic Limit — Bending 655 kg/cm² (64.2 MPa)

MOR — Bending 1,085 kg/cm² (106.4 MPa)

MOE — Compression Parallel 173,800 kg/cm² (17.04 GPa)

Compression Parallel — Elastic Limit 375 kg/cm² (36.8 MPa)

Compression Parallel — Rupture 560 kg/cm² (54.9 MPa)

Compression Perpendicular — Elastic Limit 600 kg/cm² (58.8 MPa)

Shear Parallel — Rupture 585 kg/cm² (57.4 MPa)

Janka Hardness — Lateral 1,065 kgf (≈ 10.45 kN)

Janka Hardness — End Grain 950 kgf (≈ 9.32 kN)

Where it's used

Built for the demanding jobs

01 — Furniture

Indoor & outdoor furniture

02 — Flooring

Premium hardwood flooring

03 — Musical Instruments

Tonewood & musical instruments

04 — Marine

Marine decking & boat building

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