Specs
- Common Names
- Persimmon, White Ebony
- Scientific Name
- Diospyros virginiana
- Origin
- Eastern United States
- Appearance
- Very wide sapwood is a white to pale yellowish-brown. Color tends to darken with age. Very thin heartwood (usually less than 1″ wide) is dark brown to black, similar to ebony. (Persimmon is in the same genus—Diospyros—as true ebonies.) Grain is straight, with a uniform medium-coarse texture. Endgrain: Semi-ring-porous; medium-large earlywood pores sometimes form broken rows, latewood pores medium-small; solitary and radial multiples of 2-3; growth rings usually distinct; rays not visible without lens; parenchyma diffuse-in-aggregates, vasicentric, and banded (reticulate and marginal).
- Avg. Dried Weight
- 52 lbs/ft3 (835 kg/m3)
- Janka Hardness
- 2300 lbf
- Modulus of Rupture
- 17,700 lbf/in2 (122.1 MPa)
- Elastic Modulus
- 2,010,000 lbf/in2 (13.86 GPa)
- Crushing Strength
- 9,170 lbf/in2 (63.2 MPa)
- Shrinkage
- Radial: 7.9%, Tangential: 11.2%, Volumetric: 19.1%, T/R Ratio: 1.4
- Durability
- Being that nearly all of Persimmon is sapwood, it is rated as perishable and is susceptible to insect attack.
- Workability
- Overall workability is so-so. Persimmon generally responds well to hand tools, but can be difficult to plane and blunts cutting edges faster than expected. Turns and finishes well.
