How hard, heavy and stable is that wood?
Laboratory values for 155 commercial woods from the USDA Wood Handbook — hardness, density, strength, stiffness and shrinkage — set side by side so you can choose between them.
Compare up to three woodsFind woods by hardness, density and shrinkage
U.S. hardwoodsU.S. softwoodsImported woodsNorthern red oak, the usual yardstick
Compare two woods
Pick any two of the 155. The table shows how the second differs from the first; the full comparer takes a third wood, draws every measure as bars and filters all 155 by hardness, density and shrinkage.
| Measure | White oak | Sugar maple | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janka hardness | 1,360 lbf | 1,450 lbf | Sugar maple 7% harder |
| Density (SG) | 0.60 | 0.56 | Sugar maple 7% lighter |
| Bending strength | 15,200 psi | 15,800 psi | Sugar maple 4% stronger |
| Stiffness | 1.78 M psi | 1.83 M psi | Sugar maple 3% stiffer |
| Shrinkage across the face | 10.5% | 9.9% | Sugar maple moves less |
| Shrinkage through the thickness | 5.6% | 4.8% | Sugar maple moves less |
| T/R ratio (cupping) | 1.88 | 2.06 | Sugar maple 10% cups more |
Heavier usually means harder
Of the measures here, density tracks hardness most closely: across the 155 woods the correlation is 0.95. Woods above the band are harder than their weight suggests.
U.S. hardwoodsU.S. softwoodsImported woods
Circled woods are named. For imported woods the handbook does not state the basis of its density figure.
Records
The extremes among the 155 woods. Full rankings
- Hardest
- Ipe3,680 lbf
- Softest
- Ceiba240 lbf
- Heaviest
- KaneelhartSG 0.96
- Lightest
- CeibaSG 0.25
- Stiffest
- Kaneelhart4.06 M psi
- Strongest in bending
- Kaneelhart29,900 psi
- Flattest drying
- GreenheartT/R 1.09
- Least shrinkage
- Macawood6.5% vol.
- Most shrinkage
- Karri20.2% vol.
- Stiffest for its weight
- Cuangare4.90
Three groups of wood
Each tick is one species; the black line is the group’s median hardness.
U.S. hardwoods
53 species · median 1,160 lbf
U.S. softwoods
37 species · median 500 lbf
Imported woods
65 species · median 1,300 lbf
Guides
Questions about hardness, density and shrinkage, answered from the same data. All guides
- How to read a Janka hardness number
What the test measures, how the numbers are spread across the scale, and why red oak is the reference.
- The hardest and softest woods in the Wood Handbook
The two ends of the Janka scale, group by group, with density alongside.
- Radial vs tangential shrinkage, in numbers
Why boards shrink unevenly, what the T/R ratio adds and which woods dry flattest.
- Hardwood vs softwood: what the numbers show
Group medians side by side, and the softwoods that are harder than some hardwoods.
- Density and hardness: how closely they track
A rule of thumb from the data, and the woods that are harder or softer than their weight suggests.
- How to use the wood comparer and finder
Worked examples for the three-wood comparison and the property finder.
Families
Botanical groups with three or more woods in the handbook, with their hardness range.
- True firs7 · 350–500 lbf
- Maples5 · 700–1,450 lbf
- Birches3 · 910–1,470 lbf
- Hickories4 · 1,810–2,140 lbf
- Chamaecyparis cedars3 · 350–630 lbf
- Ashes4 · 850–1,320 lbf
- Spruces3 · 390–530 lbf
- Pines13 · 380–1,240 lbf
- Aspens & cottonwoods3 · 350–430 lbf
- Douglas-fir3 · 600–710 lbf
- Oaks15 · 1,060–2,500 lbf
- Merantis3 · 460–780 lbf
- Tabebuia (ipe, roble, primavera)3 · 660–3,680 lbf
- Hemlocks3 · 500–680 lbf
- Elms3 · 830–1,320 lbf