Diospyros virginiana
Summary
Persimmon, or Diospyros virginiana, is mainly known for their fruit instead of their wood. Persimmon may be a hard and heavy wood, but it experiences a significant amount of shrinkage. Golf club heads have been made out of persimmon because of its excellent shock and wear resistance.
History
Persimmon has not been commonly used for many products due the amount of shrinkage it experiences, but turned objects
and golf club heads have been made from the wood.
Color & Texture
The wood is semi-ring porous, and the grain appears similar to hickory, but with smaller pores. The trees are nearly all sapwood. The sapwood is creamy white when first
cut but tends to develop oxidation stain and turns brown as seen in this panel. The small heartwood, or areas around
knots and other wounds, are black. The species is a member of the
ebony family, and some woodworkers use the black wood (when large
enough) as a substitute.
Anatomical and Microscopy
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).
Wood Properties
- Workability
- Good for turned products. Good for hand tools and finishing. Difficult to plane.
- Strength
- One of the strongest hardwoods
- Steam Bending
- Not yet rated
- Drying
- Difficult to dry due to warping
- Shrinkage
- High shrinkage
- Decay
- Heartwood is rated as resistant to very resistant to decay
Products
Because of the woods high density and resistance to wear, it has been used in the past for spools, bobbins, billiard
cues, golf club heads, etc.
