The difficulties to the use of eucalypt as solid wood are based on the lack of knowledge about the process of how to work correctly this material. It is necessary to know both the wood structure and wood workability parameters to better understand their relationships. Thus, this research aimed to identify the variation of wood machining property and the fiber morphology from pith to bark in 25-year-old Eucalyptus grandis Hill ex. Maiden. Data were evaluated through analysis of variance and tests of comparison of means. Then wood machining properties were correlated with fiber dimensions. Different standards of variation from pith to bark were obtained. For wood workability, it was conclued that cut conditions were considered insufficient to present better surface qualities, due to very low cutting velocities, which produced precleavage. Eucalyptus grandis wood presented satisfactory surface quality, but poorer than that of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla R.A. King.) and Brazilian Walnut (Ocotea porosa (Nees ex.Mart.) Barroso). The operations, such as moulding in top (cut 90º-90º), axial moulding ";stopped"; (cut 90º-0º) and axial edge cutting with plane knife (cut 90º-0º against the fibers) allowed to better evaluate the workability than other properties, since wood is processed under drastic condictions, showing its true potential.
Eucalyptus wood; workability and fiber morphology
