Lumber Weight

Janka hardness scale

The Janka test presses a 0.444-inch (11.28 mm) steel ball into a wood sample to half the ball's diameter; the side-hardness load required, in pounds-force, is the rating. Values here are at 12% moisture content per ASTM D143, from the USDA Wood Handbook, Table 5-3b. Click a column header to re-sort.

Janka hardness, hardest first
RankSpeciesJanka lbfNewtonsSG (green)Type
1 Shagbark Hickory 1,880 8,363 0.64 hardwood
2 Black Locust 1,700 7,562 0.66 hardwood
3 Sugar Maple 1,450 6,450 0.56 hardwood
4 White Oak 1,360 6,050 0.6 hardwood
5 White Ash 1,320 5,872 0.55 hardwood
6 American Beech 1,300 5,783 0.56 hardwood
7 Red Oak 1,290 5,738 0.56 hardwood
8 Yellow Birch 1,260 5,605 0.55 hardwood
9 Black Walnut 1,010 4,493 0.51 hardwood
10 Black Cherry 950 4,226 0.47 hardwood
11 Red Maple 950 4,226 0.49 hardwood
12 Longleaf Pine 870 3,870 0.54 softwood
13 Sweetgum 850 3,781 0.46 hardwood
14 American Elm 830 3,692 0.46 hardwood
15 Western Larch 830 3,692 0.48 softwood
16 Douglas Fir 710 3,158 0.45 softwood
17 Shortleaf Pine 690 3,069 0.47 softwood
18 Southern Yellow Pine (Loblolly) 690 3,069 0.47 softwood
19 Interior Douglas Fir 660 2,936 0.46 softwood
20 Red Alder 590 2,624 0.37 hardwood
21 Tamarack 590 2,624 0.49 softwood
22 Alaska Yellow Cedar 580 2,580 0.42 softwood
23 Red Pine 560 2,491 0.41 softwood
24 Hem-Fir (Western Hemlock) 540 2,402 0.42 softwood
25 Yellow Poplar 540 2,402 0.4 hardwood
26 Red Spruce 530 2,358 0.37 softwood
27 Baldcypress 510 2,269 0.42 softwood
28 Sitka Spruce 510 2,269 0.37 softwood
29 Eastern Hemlock 500 2,224 0.38 softwood
30 Grand Fir 490 2,180 0.35 softwood
31 Lodgepole Pine 480 2,135 0.38 softwood
32 Redwood 480 2,135 0.38 softwood
33 White Fir 480 2,135 0.37 softwood
34 Incense Cedar 470 2,091 0.35 softwood
35 Ponderosa Pine 460 2,046 0.38 softwood
36 Eastern Cottonwood 430 1,913 0.37 hardwood
37 Western White Pine 420 1,868 0.35 softwood
38 Basswood 410 1,824 0.32 hardwood
39 SPF (White Spruce) 410 1,824 0.33 softwood
40 Engelmann Spruce 390 1,735 0.33 softwood
41 Balsam Fir 380 1,690 0.33 softwood
42 Eastern White Pine 380 1,690 0.34 softwood
43 Sugar Pine 380 1,690 0.34 softwood
44 Quaking Aspen 350 1,557 0.35 hardwood
45 Western Red Cedar 350 1,557 0.31 softwood
46 Northern White Cedar 320 1,423 0.29 softwood

Hardness measures resistance to denting, not how much a board weighs — the two correlate loosely, not exactly. Red Alder is a good example: it ranks #20 for hardness but #31 for density among these 46 species. For density alone, see the wood density chart; individual profiles: Hickory, Red Alder.