Domination of Grain Bearing on the Strength Properties of Engkabang Jantong as Fast Growing Timber in Sarawak

Nowadays, the hardwood category which refers to heavy hardwood species no longer sustains to the market demand. The harvesting of this wood category takes longer period of time. Thus, several studies in timber engineering have been carried out to investigate the fast-growing indigenous species as the alternative to heavy hardwood categories. For this purpose, fast-growing indigenous species of Engkabang jantong were selected and also the test samples were prepared in small clear specimens. The British Standard, BS373.1957 method of testing small clear specimens of timber was adopted to evaluate the strength properties of the species. The strength properties determinations were referred to hardness, cleavage and shear parallel to grain. The results were represented into two different grain directions namely tangential and radial at two different conditions, i.e. green and air-dry condition. It was found that, hardness strength at tangential was higher than radial for both condition green and air-dry with 4.71and 8.86%, respectively. At cleavage strength, it was reported that tangential possessed higher strength values than the radial for both conditions green and air-dry with 23.06 and 27.22%, respectively. Shear strength at tangential was higher than radial for both conditions green and air-dry with 11.70 and 8.58%, respectively.