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Lignum vitae
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Lignum vitae is a trade wood, from trees of the genus Guaiacum, also called guayacan. This wood was once very important for uses requiring strength, weight, and hardness. All species of the genus are now listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as potentially endangered species.
The wood is obtained chiefly from Guaiacum officinale and Guaiacum sanctum, both small, slow growing trees.
The name is Latin for "wood of life", and derives from its medicinal uses: the resin has been used to treat a variety of medical conditions from coughs to arthritis; wood chips can also be used to brew a tea.
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Encyclopedia
Lignum vitae is a trade wood, from trees of the genus Guaiacum, also called guayacan. This wood was once very important for uses requiring strength, weight, and hardness. All species of the genus are now listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as potentially endangered species.
The wood is obtained chiefly from Guaiacum officinale and Guaiacum sanctum, both small, slow growing trees.
The name is Latin for "wood of life", and derives from its medicinal uses: the resin has been used to treat a variety of medical conditions from coughs to arthritis; wood chips can also be used to brew a tea. Other names are palo santo (Spanish for holy wood), greenheart, and ironwood (one of many).
It is a hard, dense and durable wood, the most dense wood traded; it will easily sink in water. On the Janka Scale of Hardness, which measures hardness of woods, lignum vitae ranks highest of the trade woods, with a Janka hardness of 4500 (compared with Hickory at 1820, red oak at 1290, and Yellow Pine at 690). The heartwood is green in color leading to the common name Greenheart. In the shipbuilding, cabinetry, and woodturning crafts the term greenheart refers to the green heartwood of Chlorocardium rodiei.
Various other hardwoods of Australasia (e.g., some species of Acacia and Eucalyptus) may also be called lignum vitae and should not be confused. The best-known is from Bulnesia arborea and Bulnesia sarmientoi (in the same family) and is known as Verawood or Argentine lignum vitae; it is somewhat similar in appearance and working qualities as genuine lignum vitae. In the early 2000s the Dogfish Head brewery commissioned a 10,000 liter barrel for brewing beer in after hearing that locals used this wood for wine production. The beer is a dark full roast ale at 12% abv.
Uses
Due to its weight, cricket bails, particularly 'heavy bails' used in windy conditions, are sometimes made of lignum vitae. It is also sometimes used to make lawn bowls, croquet mallets and skittles balls. The wood also has seen widespread historical usage in mortars and pestles and for wood carvers' mallets.
It was the traditional wood used for British police truncheons until recently, due to its density (and strength), combined with the relative softness of wood compared to metal, thereby tending to bruise or stun rather than simply cut the skin.
The belaying pins aboard the USS Constitution are made from Lignum vitae. Due to its density and natural oils, they rarely require replacement, despite the severity of typical marine weathering conditions.
Master clockmaker John Harrison used lignum vitae for the critical parts of his early and nearly all-wood clocks, since the wood provides natural lubricating oils which do not dry out.
For this same reason it was widely used in shaft bearings. Commonly used in ship's propeller stern-tube bearings, due to its self-lubricating qualities, until the 1960s with the introduction of sealed white metal bearings. According to the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association website, the shaft bearings on the WWII submarine USS Pampanito (SS-383) were made of this wood. (Source:http://www.maritime.org/pamphist.htm) The after main shaft strut bearings for USS Nautilus SSN571; the world's first nuclear powered submarine were composed of this wood. Also, the bearings in the original 1920's turbines of the Conowingo Hydroelectric Plant on the lower Susquehanna River were made from lignum vitae.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the urgent need to rebuild the streetcar system and the inability to obtain regular composition, porcelain, or glass insulators for the electrical feeders fast enough, a significant number of insulators were turned from this wood (readily available from the ships in the harbor as ballast) as a 'temporary' solution. Many of these lasted into the 1970s with a small number remaining in service as of 2009 (all these that had been removed were done so as part of a project to move these 600V DC feeder wires underground).
Lore
Pioneering calypsonian/vaudevillian Sam Manning recorded a song entitled in the 1920s. His reference was doubly salacious, referring to both the bark tea's contraceptive qualities and the phallic symbolism of the hard wood.
According to T.H. White's version of the King Arthur story The Once and Future King, Lignum vitae, from which the staff of Merlin is made, has magical powers.
Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera includes a bathtub made of this wood in one of the main characters' homes.
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