If you are planning on building something out of solid wood, then beech wood is always a good option to consider. With that being said, you may have some questions about the strength of this material, particularly in terms of whether it is softwood or hardwood.
Today, we want to do a closer examination of beech wood to see exactly what it is, particularly how strong it is. Let’s figure out just how strong this particular type of wood actually is.
Is Beech a Hardwood or a Softwood?
Firstly, beech is a type of hardwood. This tree is an angiosperm, which means that it is a flowering tree, or in other words, is deciduous in nature, which means that it loses its leaves during the colder months. Beech is known for being a fairly hard type of hardwood.
We say this because not all types of hardwood are actually really hard to the touch, just like not all types of softwood are very soft. However, beech is a hardwood, and it is fairly hard. Additionally, there are two main types of beech trees, including the American beech and the European beech.
Beech Wood Strength
Beech is generally considered to be a fairly hard and durable type of wood, which is why it is often used for a wide variety of purposes, including ones that need to be structural in nature. In order to determine exactly how strong this specific type of wood is, we are going to be taking a look at five main factors.
These five main factors include compressive strength, bending strength, stiffness, hardness, and density of beech wood. We are going to compare American beech to European beech, and then compare these to some other very popular types of wood that you might come across in your woodworking journey.
Compressive Strength
Here we have listed the compressive strength of beech wood:
- American beech – 7,410 lbs per square inch (51.1 MPa)
- European beech – 8,270 lbs per square inch (57 MPa)
As you can see, European beech is the slightly stronger of the two in terms of compressive strength. For comparison, both of these materials are stronger in terms of compressive strength than Douglas fir, pine, and even African mahogany. European beech is also stronger than hard maple, although hard maple is stronger than American beech. Then, Gaboon ebony is stronger than both of these types of beech wood.
Compressive strength may also be known as crushing strength. This measurement refers to how much weight wood can take parallel to the grain. In other words, how much weight can wood hold before it begins to buckle? As an example, imagine weight being placed on top of a vertical table leg. How much weight can that table leg hold before it buckles and snaps sideways?
Bending Strength
below, we have listed the bending strength of both varieties of beech wood:
- American beech – 14,900 lbs per square inch (102.8 MPa)
- European beech – 15,970 lbs per square inch (110.1 MPa)
As a point of reference, this is stronger than most types of softwood, including pine, Douglas fir, spruce, and others. It’s also stronger than African mahogany. If we look at hard maple, it has a higher bending strength than American beech, but a lower bending strength than European beech. We then have Gaboon ebony, which is stronger than both.
In case you do not know what bending strength is, this may also be referred to as the modulus of rupture. Unlike compressive strength, which is all about how much weight a piece of wood can hold parallel to the grain, bending strength refers to the weight that a piece of wood can take perpendicular to the grain. An example of this would be if you hang a wooden peg horizontally on a wall, the amount of weight it could hold before it snaps downwards.
Stiffness
below we have listed the stiffness of both European and American beech:
- American beech – 1,720,000 lbs per square inch (11.86 GPa)
- European beech – 2,075,000 lbs per square inch (14.31 GPa)
As a point of reference, this is stronger than pine. What is interesting to note is that Douglas fir is stiffer than American beech, but not as stiff as European beech. African mahogany is however weaker than both. European beech is stiffer than hard maple, although hard maple is stiffer than American beech. We then have ebony, which is much stiffer than both of these types of wood.
If you don’t know what the stiffness of wood is, this may also be called the modulus of elasticity. This measurement refers to how much a piece of wood will bend when a load is placed perpendicular to the grain of that piece of wood.
In other words, here you could imagine yourself standing right in the middle of a piece of wood that is supported on both sides, such as if there were two bricks underneath the left and the right. This is in reference to how much it is going to bend or sag underneath your weight. In other words, how much weight can a piece of wood take before it starts to bend?
Hardness
Below we have listed the Janka hardness rating of American and European beech wood:
- American beech – 1,300 lbf
- European beech – 1,450 lbf
As a point of reference, this is much harder than virtually all types of softwood, including Douglas fir, pine, and others. It’s also much harder than African mahogany. However, hard maple has the same hardness rating as European beech, with ebony being even harder.
In case you don’t know what the hardness of wood refers to, this simply refers to how hard it is, or more specifically, how resilient it is towards physical damage such as scratching and denting. This is usually measured on the Janka hardness scale.
Density
Here we have listed the weight or density of European and American beech wood:
- American beech – 45 lbs per cubic foot (720 kilograms per cubic meter)
- European beech – 44.3 lbs per cubic foot (710 kilograms per cubic meter)
As a point of reference, that is much denser than Douglas fir, pine, and most other types of softwood. It’s also much denser than African mahogany. On that note, it’s also much denser and heavier than hard maple. However, ebony is still much heavier than all of these types of wood.
The density of wood refers to how heavy a piece of wood is in relation to a specific size or area. The density or weight of wood is generally measured in either kilograms per cubic meter or lbs per cubic foot. Knowing how heavy a piece of wood is does have its importance, as it is an indication of not only how easy the wood is to work with, but also how durable it is.
Is Beech Strong?
When it comes down to it, yes, beech is quite strong. This material is stronger than most types of softwood, and this is true in terms of all five of those factors discussed above. Moreover, beech also appears to be stronger than a good deal of hardwoods that can be found in North America.
Beech has relatively high density, hardness, crushing strength, elasticity, and more. It ranks quite highly in all five of the categories that we have discussed above. So, if you need a very strong and durable type of wood to build something with, both American and European beech are good choices to consider.
Summary
Now that you know everything there is to know about this type of wood, particularly in terms of its strength, you can make an informed decision as to whether or not it is something you would like to use for your next project.