Quebracho

Description

An extremely hard, durable wood obtained from either of two South American trees: Aspidosperma quebracho (red) or Schinopsis lorentzii (white). Quebracho wood polishes well and has a spotted reddish brown appearance but is generally stained black with iron solutions. Quebracho wood is often used for outdoor applications (railway sleepers, fencepost, and heavy construction) as well as for artisan woodworking and carving. The quebracho wood is high in tannins, containing up to 37%. The tannin extracts are low in non-tannins (salts and acids), which allows rapid-penetration into leathers making them more compact, tear-resistant and soft. Quebracho tannin is the most important vegetable tanning agent used in the American leather industry (Lewis, 1993). Natural dyes can also be made from the heartwood that range in color from yellow, coral, green and a reddish-brown. The dyes are pH dependent and though the high amounts of tannins make mordants unnecessary, they can still be used to deepen the colors.

Synonyms and Related Terms

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

Physical and Chemical Properties

• Trees grow to 30-50ft (9-15 m) tall and 103 ft (0.3-1 m) wide
• Heartwood is light to medium reddish brown and color darkens on exposure to light; sapwood is pale yellow
• Grain is irregular but texture is fine and uniform
• Durability is good along with its resistance to insects
• Density = 72-78 ppcf

Working Properties

• Difficult to work because of high density and irregular grain
• High cutting resistance, as well as pronounced blunting effect on cutters.
• Dries slowly—and tends to crack, check, and warp while drying.
• Turns and finishes well, and also able to take on a high natural polish without any finishing agents.

Resources and Citations

• The Wood Database: Quebracho
• 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
• American Leather Chemists Association Glossary at www.leatherchemists.org
• Wikipedia: Quebracho tree Accessed May 2026
• The Plant Lady: select Natural Dye Table