Lignum vitae

Lignum v itae is a wood, also called guay acan or guaiacum , [1] and
in parts of Europe known as pockholz, from trees of the genus
Guaiacum. The trees are indigenous to the Caribbean and the northern
coast of South America and hav e been an important export crop to
Europe since the beginning of the 16th century . The wood was once
v ery important for applications requiring a material with its
extraordinary combination of strength, toughness, and density . It is
also the national tree of the Bahamas and the Jamaican national
flower. [2]

The wood is obtained chiefly from Guaiacum officinale and Guaiacum

sanctum, both small, slow growing trees. All species of the genus
Guaiacum are now listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Conv ention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as
potentially endangered species. Demand for the wood has been reduced
by modern materials science, which has led to poly mer, alloy s and
composite materials that can take lignum v itae's place.

Contents
Mallet of lignum vitae, all sapwood
Name
Description
Uses
Lore
References

Name
"Lignum v itae" is Latin for "wood of life", and deriv es its name from its
medicinal uses; lignum v itae resin has been used to treat a v ariety of
medical conditions from coughs to arthritis, and chips of the wood can
also be used to brew a tea.

Other names for lignum v itae include palo santo (Spanish for "holy
wood") and "bastard greenheart" (not to be confused with true
Greenheart Chlorocardium rodiei, a popular wood in shipbuilding,
Wood of Bulnesia sarmientoi
cabinetry , and woodturning but a completely different timber); lignum
v itae is also one of the numerous hard, dense woods loosely referred to
as "ironwood".

Description
Lignum v itae is hard and durable, and is also the densest wood traded (density : 1.23 g/cm3 );[3] it will easily sink
in water. On the Janka Scale of Hardness, which measures hardness of woods, lignum v itae ranks highest of the
trade woods, with a Janka hardness of 4500 lbf (compared with African Blackwood at 2940 lbf, Hickory at
1820 lbf, red oak at 1290 lbf, Y ellow Pine at 690 lbf, and Balsa at 100 lbf).

Various other hardwoods may also be called lignum v itae and should not be confused with it. The best-known
come from Bulnesia arborea and Bulnesia sarmientoi (in the same subfamily as Guaiacum) and are known as
Verawood or Argentine lignum v itae; they are somewhat similar in appearance and working qualities as genuine
lignum v itae. Some hardwoods from Australasia (e.g., Vitex lignum-vitae and some species of Acacia and
Eucalyptus) are also referred to as lignum v itae.

Uses
Due to the density of the wood, cricket bails, in particular "heav y bails" used in windy conditions, are sometimes
made of lignum v itae. 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 carv ers' mallets.

It was the traditional wood used for the British police truncheon until recently , due to its density (and strength),
combined with the relativ e softness of wood compared to metal, thereby tending to bruise or stun rather than
simply cut the skin.

The belay ing pins and deadey es aboard USS Constitution and many other sailing ships were made from lignum
v itae. Due to its density and natural oils, they rarely require replacement, despite the sev erity of ty pical marine
weathering conditions, and also resisted jamming in their mortise holes. The sheav es of blocks on sailing v essels
were made of lignum v itae until the introduction of modern sy nthetics.

Due to lignum v itae's toughness, it can also be used as a lap in the process of cutting gems. The wood is cov ered
with powdered industrial diamond, attached to a spindle, and used to smooth rough surfaces of gems.

Master clockmaker John Harrison used lignum v itae in the bearings and gears of his pendulum clocks and his first
three marine chronometers (all of which were large clocks rather than watches), since the wood is self-
lubricating. The use of lignum v itae eliminates the need for horological lubricating oil; 18th-century horological
oil would get gummy and reduce the accuracy of a timepiece under unfav ourable conditions (including those
that prev ail at sea).

For the same reason it was widely used in water-lubricated shaft bearings for ships and hy dro-electric power
plants, [4] and in the stern-tube bearings of ship propellers [5] until the 1960s saw 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. [6] The aft main shaft strut bearings for
USS Nautilus (SSN-57 1), the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, were composed of this wood. Also, the
bearings in the original 1920s turbines of the Conowingo hy droelectric plant on the lower Susquehanna Riv er
were made from lignum v itae. The shaft bearings on the horizontal turbines at the Pointe du Bois generating
station in Manitoba are made from lignum v itae. Other hy droelectric plant turbine bearings, many of them still in
serv ice, were fabricated with lignum v itae and are too numerous to list here. [7]

The United Railroads of San Francisco (an ancestor of the San Francisco Municipal Railway ) began installing
lignum v itae insulators to support heav y feeder wires for their trolley sy stem in 1904. The reason for the
adoption of lignum v itae was its ability to withstand the high stress at high temperature, a problem posed by
heav y cables turning corners heated by high current ov erloads. Many of these insulators surv iv ed the 1906
earthquake and fires, despite temperatures high enough to soften the iron poles and melt the copper cables. [8][9]
Many of these lasted into the 197 0s with a small number remaining in serv ice into the first decade of the 2000s
(most of these came down when the ov erhead 600 V DC feeders were replaced with a new sy stem of underground
feeders, the rest coming out of serv ice as aging crossarms supporting the remaining ov erhead feeders were
replaced).

Lore
Pioneering caly psonian/v audev illian Sam Manning recorded a song
entitled "Lignum Vitae" in the 1920s. [10] His reference was doubly
salacious, referring to both the bark tea's contraceptiv e qualities and
the phallic sy mbolism of the hard wood.

According to T. H. White's v ersion of the King Arthur story The Once

and Future King, lignum v itae, from which the wand of Merlin is made,
has magical powers.
Pete Seeger with his extra-long,
Gabriel García Márquez's nov el Love in the Time of Cholera includes a
lignum vitae banjo neck
bathtub made of this wood in one of the main characters' homes. His
nov el Chronicle of a Death Foretold also refers to the use of this wood
in making a cane for the blind Poncio Vicario.

American folksinger Pete Seeger fashioned the neck of his trademark banjo from lignum v itae.

In Charles Dickens' nov el Bleak House, one of the characters, Matthew Bagnet is referred to as lignum v itae, "... in
compliment to the extreme hardness and toughness of his phy siognomy ."

A hand plane with a Example of the original

lignum vitae sole, likely construction 53 lb/yd
Bulnesia, and a (26 kg/m) inverted "U" rail
pearwood body aka "Bridge" rail, "screw"
spike, and lignum vitae
tie used to build the
Panama Railroad from
1851 to 1855.

References
1. OED entry
2. National Symbols of Jamaica (https://web.archive.org/web/20060619153047/http://www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/T
his%20Is%20Jamaica/symbols.html), Jamaica Information Service, archived from the original (http://www.jis.gov.jm/s
pecial_sections/this%20is%20jamaica/symbols.html) on 2006-06-19
3. density heaviest wood – WolframAlpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=density+heaviest+wood),
WolframAlpha, retrieved 2012-10-26
 4. [1] (http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2014/aug/08/rare-tour-of-rock-island-dam-takes-visitors-below-the-columbi
a/)
5. "Fitting Ships With Wooden Bearings" (https://books.google.com/books?id=ytwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA156&dq=1954
+Popular+Mechanics+January&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HR6mT6nEIsb5ggf8ovSZAQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwATgy#v=onepage&q
&f=true). Popular Mechanics, April 1952, pp. 156–157
6. History and Crew OF USS Pampanito (SS-383) (http://www.maritime.org/pamphist.htm), San Francisco Maritime
National Park Association, retrieved 2009-07-12
7. Discussions with various utilities operating these plants, beginning with an affiliate of the Nebraska Public Power
District in 1976. In 1976, NPPD affiliates were still using lignum vitae when turbine bearing replacements were
needed. Some of those replacements are likely to still be in service. Lignum vitae bearings are also found in larger
units at several dams in the Pacific Northwest.
8. S. L. Foster (June 9, 1917), "Taking Care of Corner Stresses from Large D.C. Feeders" (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=z45NAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1051#v=twopage&q&f=false), The Electric Railway Journal, Vol. XLIX, No. 23,
pages 1051–1053.
9. Wood Insulators (http://www.nia.org/general/wood.htm), National Insulator Association, retrieved 2009-07-12 This
cites Padgett, Fred; Ruedrich, Walter P. (2000), Wood Amongst the Wires: The Temporary Solution (http://www.insu
lators.info/books/wood.htm)
10. Cowley, John (2006), "Chapter 7: West Indies Blues", in Robert Springer, Nobody Knows Where the Blues Come
From: Lyrics and History (https://books.google.com/books?id=yEJbyaSpPzgC&lpg=PA215&pg=PA215#v=onepage&
q=lignum+vitae&f=false), University Press of Mississippi, p. 215, ISBN 978-1-57806-797-8

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