wood name
BOTANICAL NAME: (primarily) Diospyros virginiana of the Family Ebenaceae
COMMON NAMES: bara bara, boa wood, boawood, butterwood, common persimmon, cylil date plum, date plum, eastern persimmon, echtes persimmon, florida persimmon, persimmon, plaqueminier, possumwood, seeded plum
other species that are also known as persimmon:
Diospyros kaki --- Oriental persimmon (Japan and China)
Diospyros texana --- black persimmon, chapote, common sweetleaf, Florida laurel, horse sugar, Mexican persimmon, Spanish chapote, sweetleaf, Texas persimmon, yellow-wood
diospyros blancoi --- velvet persimmon
TYPE: hardwood
COLOR: Persimmon's heartwood is dark brown to black in color (often jet black). It is very irregular in form and generally very small compared to the sapwood, which is most of the tree. The creamy white sapwood changes color (darkens towards brown) upon exposure and if not processed properly will often become an ugly gray.
GRAIN / TEXTURE / FILLER / FINISH / LUSTER: Straight grained with a fine, uniform, texture and little figure, persimmon finishes well and can be brought to a high polish because it is so dense. Takes finishes well. One report said the texture is coarse, but that has not been my experience
PROPERTIES / WORKABILITY: Wood is very dense, hard, heavy, and strong, with a high bending and crushing strength, medium stiffness and very high impace resistance. It works moderately to well with hand tools and machines but requires sharp cutting tools, and it does have a moderate blunting effect. Requires reduced cutting angles to yield very smooth surfaces in planing. Requires pre-drilling for screwing or nailing and holds nails well. Reports on gluing vary but most say it glues well, which has been my experience. Turns and sands well. Boring, mortising, and other machining operations are reported to be fairly easy. The surface of the worked wood is reported to stay smooth even under hard usage.
DURABILITY: sapwood is susceptible to attack by powder-post beetles. The species is reported to be vulnerable to attack by the persimmon wilt fungus. Mechanically, it is exceptionally durable.
STABILITY: large movement in service
BENDING: Suitable for steam bending; can be bent to a moderate radius. The bending strength qualities of this species, dried, is very high, far superior to those of Mahogany.
ODOR / TASTE: No characteristic odor or taste
SOURCES: North America, from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey west to Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, south to Oklahoma and Texas, east to Florida including the Florida Keys. The tree prefers moist alluvial soils of valleys as well as in dry uplands. It is usually found growing in mixed forests, along roadsides, and in old fields and clearings.
USES: Once the wood of choice for golf club heads because of hardness and impact resistance, it is also used for bedroom suites, billiard cues, boat building, bobbins, building construction, building materials, cabin construction, cabinetmaking, canoes, chairs, chests, concealed parts in furniture, construction, desks, dining-room furniture, domestic flooring, dowell pins, dowells, drawer sides, drum sticks, excelsior, factory construction, factory flooring, fine furniture, floor lamps, flooring, furniture, furniture components, furniture squares or stock, handles, hatracks, heavy construction, joinery, kitchen cabinets, lifeboats, living-room suites, mine timbers, musical instruments, office furniture, organ pipes, parquet flooring, parquet floors, piano keys, pianos, radio, rustic furniture, shipbuilding, shoe lasts, shuttles, sounding boards, spools, stereo, stools, sub-flooring, tables, textile shuttles and bobbins, turnery, utility furniture, violin bows, and wardrobes.
TREE: A slow-growing tree with average height of 30 to 70 feet (but some trees grow to 100 or even 120 feet) with diameters of one to two feet, up to a maximum of about 2 1/2 feet.
WEIGHT: Heavier than most domestic USA woods, at about 50 pounds per cubic foot
DRYING: Seasoning is reported to be rather difficult, and can be accompanied by large shrinkage and there may be checking. Chemical brown stains are a common drying defect, believed to be caused by severe drying and slow drying at low temperatures.
Shrinkage:
radial: 8%
tangential: 11%
volumetric: 19%
AVAILABILITY: limited
COST: expensive
TOXICITY: Heartwood may cause dermatitis
web quotes:
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Persimmon is the only American ebony and also one of the few woods with a sapwood that is used commercially along with its heartwood. The persimmon tree is generally small to medium in size, which limits its uses. And while it is one of the strongest hardwoods available, suitable for use as a supporting beam, for example, it doesn't grow in dimensions suitable for that use.
So instead, persimmon has had a number of different callings. For years, it was known as one of the best choices for wooden golf club heads. Gale Nash, owner of CMC Golf Co. in Gunnison, CO makes and sells golf clubs made of persimmon.
"We do sell clubs made from persimmon, but it is more of a novelty and nostalgia item now," Nash said, referring to the growth in golf club technology. CMC sells two different clubs made from persimmon. "We feature a putter and a club called the ginty, basically a trouble fairway club designed to get a player out of the rough. Wood clubs are not that popular anymore, and I would starve to death if I depended on those two items."
Nash said the clubs, known as woods, are mostly made with metals now. Materials like titanium have eaten away at the market persimmon once dominated because titanium makes for a lighter, yet larger club head.
"With wood, you are limited to the size of the club head because of weight. With titanium being very lightweight, one can make a larger club. It is easier to hit because there is a bigger area on the face, plus it gives what we call a trampoline or springboard effect, which you can't get from wood. You get more distance with the titanium clubs."
Nash said it was a different story 25 years ago, when persimmon and other woods like walnut and hickory were used. "That's where the term G�ÿwood' came from. Persimmon had always been the favored wood for clubs," Nash said.
What distinguishes persimmon for use in club heads is its high impact resistance. That property makes it a good choice for mallets and other striking tool handles as well. Persimmon is a good turnery wood and is a favorite for pool cues. It also has been used to make parquet flooring.
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Likely, its most famous use is in the production of textile shuttles. The wood is ideal because it is hard and durable, but also can be machined into exacting designs while giving an extremely smooth finish. Donald Culross Peattie writes in the book A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America, that persimmon has the right mix of hardness, smoothness and non-warping qualities, making it ideal for shuttles for textile looms.
"Some woods, valuable in many other ways, cannot endure an hour under the terrific wear of the looms without cracking, splitting or wearing rough," the text reads. Culross Peattie cited persimmon, apple and dogwood as woods very well suited to this demanding, specialized work.
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Persimmon also has a list of colorful names. It is called the white ebony because of the sapwood's lighter color. The name possumwood is believed to be a reference to the fact that possums and other wild animals, as well as birds, are big fans of the persimmon fruit. Songs and stories abound about possums' great love of "simmons," as the tree was called.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture information reports that persimmons were also popular in numerous Native American legends. A Caddo story "tells of how the Great Spirit turned a man into a raccoon for having eaten from the persimmon tree." Persimmon seeds were said to be capable of foretelling the weather based on their configuration.
The fruit, twigs and leaves from Persimmon trees were used by Native Americans and early settlers for medicines. Persimmon was also used to make bread, syrups, liquor, other beverages and puddings that are still popular today. During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers boiled persimmon seeds to create a coffee substitute. Persimmon fruit can be eaten fresh or dried. Persimmon's family name Diospyros, in fact, translates to "fruit of Zeus."
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The genus Diospyros contains about 400 species (including ebony) mostly native to the tropics (Madagascar, Africa and Malaysia), with two native to the United States. The name diospyros is derived from the Greek, for the god Zeus or Jupiter and grain, alluding to the edible fruit or "fruit of the gods."
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A slow-growing tree that produces small white flowers shaped like lanterns or bells. The fruits are eaten by woodland animals and by people (after the first frost or the fruit puckers the lips). The tree attains a height of 80 ft (24 m) and a diameter of 2 ft (0.6 m). The bark develops thick square blocks, like alligator skin. Persimmon grows in disturbed areas and in deciduous woodlands in association with hickory, oak, sycamore, maple, red cedar, tulip poplar and elm. It masts every 2 years.
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Almost all the persimmon used commercially is reported to consist of sapwood. The heartwood is used mainly for veneer and specialty items. The properties of Persimmon makes it an ideal material for two specific types of applications: golf club heads and textile shuttles. Persimmon shuttles are very hardy and can withstand up to 1000 hours of use without wear or cracking. The wood is used for heads of driver golf clubs because of its hardiness and outstanding resistance to shock.
Hobbit note on the above comment: from what I have seen, it is non-sensical to say that the heartwood is used for veneer, since the heartwood is WAY too small for veneer production. This is typical of the kind of nonsense that I have to weed through when compiling these fact sheets.