Quebracho

Description

The durable wood obtained from either of two South American trees: Aspidosperma quebracho (red) or Schinopsis lorentzii (white). Quebracho wood is extremely hard, polishes well and has a spotted reddish brown appearance. It is generally stained black. Quebracho wood is used for carvings, railway sleepers, and heavy construction. The quebracho wood is high in tannins containing up to 37%. However, the extract is low in salts and acids and is usually mixed with alum, salt, chestnut, hemlock, and/or sumac. Quebracho tannin is the most important vegetable tanning agent used in the American leather industry (Lewis, 1993).

Synonyms and Related Terms

Aspidosperma quebracho (red quebracho); Schinopsis lorentzii (white quebracho); quebracho colorado; quebracho (Fr., Port.)

Density	72-78 ppcf

Sources Checked for Data in Record

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 648

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• Hermann Kuhn, Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art and Antiquities, Butterworths, London, 1986

• F. H. Titmuss, Commercial Timbers of the World, The Technical Press Ltd., London, 1965

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The Merck Index, Martha Windholz (ed.), Merck Research Labs, Rahway NJ, 10th edition, 1983 Comment: entry 8213

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Website address 1 Comment: American Leather Chemists Association Glossary at www.leatherchemists.org