If you are planning on building something around your home, choosing the right type of wood is very important. Obviously, you want a material that is very durable and strong.
Well, one type of wood that you might consider is eucalyptus. This tree is well known for being extremely durable, hard, and structurally sound. Today, we want to figure out whether this is a softwood or a hardwood, and how strong it really is.
Is Eucalyptus a Hardwood or Softwood?
The eucalyptus tree is an angiosperm and is in fact one of the tallest, if not the number one tallest type of angiosperm tree in the world. In other words, it is a deciduous and flowering tree that loses its leaves during the colder seasons.
On that note, this means that it is also a type of hardwood, not softwood. In fact, the eucalyptus tree qualifies as one of the hardest types of hardwood in the world. Not all types of hardwood are actually hard, but the eucalyptus tree certainly is.
Eucalyptus Wood Strength: All You Need to Know
One of the most important things that you need to know here is that the strength of wood can vary based on five main factors. These include compressive strength, bending strength, the stiffness, hardness, and density.
We are going to be taking a closer look at all of the different species of eucalyptus based on all five of these factors. Let’s figure out just how strong eucalyptus is.
The various types of eucalyptus we will be examining include blue gum, coolabah, deglupta, jarrah, karri, messmate, mountain ash, river red gum, rose gum, yellow box, and yellow gum eucalyptus.
Compressive Strength
Let’s now take a look at the compressive strength of all of the different types of eucalyptus trees:
- Blue Gum Eucalyptus – 11,160 lbf per square inch (76.9 MPa)
- Coolabah Eucalyptus – 11,800 lbf per square inch (81.3MPa)
- Deglupta Eucalyptus – 6,780 lbf per square inch (46.7 MPa)
- Jarrah Eucalyptus – 9,600 lbf per square inch (66.2 MPa)
- Karri Eucalyptus – 10,380 lbf per square inch (71.6 MPa)
- Messmate Eucalyptus – 8,710 lbf per square inch (60.1 MPa)
- Mountain Ash Eucalyptus – 8,530 lbf per square inch (58.8 MPa)
- River Red Gum Eucalyptus – 8,370 lbf per square inch (57.8 MPa)
- Rose Gum Eucalyptus – 8,020 lbf per square inch (55.3 MPa)
- Yellow Box Eucalyptus – 9,860 lbf per square inch (68.0 MPa)
- Yellow Gum Eucalyptus – 9,720 lbf per square inch (67.0 MPa)
The coolabah eucalyptus has the highest compressive strength of all varieties. this type of eucalyptus is also much stronger than the vast majority of hardwoods out there. There are not many hardwoods that have a higher compressive strength. This measurement refers to how much weight it can take parallel to its grain.
Bending Strength
Let’s now take a look at the bending strength for all of the different types of eucalyptus:
- Blue Gum Eucalyptus – 19,530 lbf per square inch (144.5 MPa)
- Coolabah Eucalyptus – 20,960 lbf per square inch (134.7 MPa)
- Deglupta Eucalyptus – 11,550 lbf per square inch (79.6 MPa)
- Jarrah Eucalyptus – 15,650 lbf per square inch (108.0 MPa)
- Karri Eucalyptus – 18,530 lbf per square inch (127.8 MPa)
- Messmate Eucalyptus – 16,290 lbf per square inch (112.3 MPa)
- Mountain Ash Eucalyptus – 14,010 lbf per square inch (96.7 MPa)
- River Red Gum Eucalyptus – 17,940 lbf per square inch (123.8 MPa)
- Rose Gum Eucalyptus – 15,640 lbf per square inch (107.8 MPa)
- Yellow Box Eucalyptus – 17,690 lbf per square inch (122.0 MPa)
- Yellow Gum Eucalyptus – 16,100 lbf per square inch (111.0 MPa)
The coolabah eucalyptus has the highest bending strength of all eucalyptus trees. This is much stronger than virtually all types of softwood, and also stronger than the vast majority of all hardwoods.
Across the board, eucalyptus is a very strong type of wood on this front. Bending strength refers to how much weight a piece of wood can take perpendicular to its grain. This may also be referred to as the modulus of rupture.
Stiffness
let’s now take a look at how stiff all of the different types of eucalyptus trees are:
- Blue Gum Eucalyptus – 2,720,000 lbf per square inch (18.76 GPa)
- Coolabah Eucalyptus – 2,500,000 lbf per square inch (17.24 GPa)
- Deglupta Eucalyptus – 2,565,000 lbf per square inch (10.79 GPa)
- Jarrah Eucalyptus – 2,132,000 lbf per square inch (14.70 GPa)
- Karri Eucalyptus – 2,965,000 lbf per square inch (20.44 GPa)
- Messmate Eucalyptus – 2,071,000 lbf per square inch (14.29 GPa)
- Mountain Ash Eucalyptus – 2,033,000 lbf per square inch (14.02 GPa)
- River Red Gum Eucalyptus – 2,711,000 lbf per square inch (11.80 GPa)
- Rose Gum Eucalyptus – 2,052,000 lbf per square inch (14.15 GPa)
- Yellow Box Eucalyptus – 2,030,000 lbf per square inch (14.00 GPa)
- Yellow Gum Eucalyptus – 2,740,000 lbf per square inch (12.00 GPa)
The karri eucalyptus is the stiffest of all the varieties, and this is much stiffer than all types of softwood, as well as most types of hardwood. Eucalyptus in general is just a very stiff type of wood.
The stiffness of wood may also be referred to as the modulus of elasticity, and this refers to how much weight a piece of wood can handle before it begins to bend, sag, or lose shape.
Hardness
let’s take a look at how hard all of the different types of eucalyptus are:
- Blue Gum Eucalyptus – 2,370 lbf
- Coolabah Eucalyptus – 3,730 lbf
- Deglupta Eucalyptus – 650 lbf
- Jarrah Eucalyptus – 1,860 lbf
- Karri Eucalyptus – 2,030 lbf
- Messmate Eucalyptus – 1,520 lbf
- Mountain Ash Eucalyptus – 1,210 lbf
- River Red Gum Eucalyptus – 2,160 lbf
- Rose Gum Eucalyptus – 1,260 lbf
- Yellow Box Eucalyptus – 2,920 lbf
- Yellow Gum Eucalyptus – 2,470 lbf
The hardest type of eucalyptus is the coolabah. This is much harder than all types of softwood out there, as well as the vast majority of hardwoods. Across the board, most types of eucalyptus are very hard.
There are much softer types, but in the grand scheme of things, most are very hard. The hardness of wood refers to how hard the outer surface is, or in other words, how resistant it is to denting and scratching. This is usually measured on the Janka hardness scale.
Density
let’s take a look at the densities of the different types of eucalyptus trees:
- Blue Gum Eucalyptus – 51 lbs per cubic foot (820 kgs per cubic meter)
- Collabah Eucalyptus – 70 lbs per cubic foot (1130 kgs per cubic meter)
- Deglupta Eucalyptus – 31 lbs per cubic foot (500 kgs per cubic meter)
- Jarrah Eucalyptus – 52 lbs per cubic foot (835 kgs per cubic meter)
- Karri Eucalyptus – 55 lbs per cubic foot (885 kgs per cubic meter)
- Messmate Eucalyptus – 47 lbs per cubic foot (750 kgs per cubic meter)
- Mountain Ash Eucalyptus – 42 lbs per cubic foot (680 kgs per cubic meter)
- River Red Gum Eucalyptus – 54 lbs per cubic foot (870 kgs per cubic meter)
- Rose Gum Eucalyptus – 40 lbs per cubic foot (640 kgs per cubic meter)
- Yellow Box Eucalyptus – 67 lbs per cubic foot (1075 kgs per cubic meter)
- Yellow Gum Eucalyptus – 63 lbs per cubic foot (1010 kgs per cubic meter)
The heaviest type of eucalyptus is the coolabah, which is much denser than all types of softwood and most types of hardwood. All around, eucalyptus is a fairly dense and heavy type of wood. The density of wood refers to how heavy it is based on a certain size, and this is usually measured in pounds per cubic foot or kilograms per cubic meter.
Is Eucalyptus Strong?
The bottom line is that eucalyptus is one of the strongest types of wood out there, and this is true on all fronts.
Summary
If you are looking for a hard, heavy, dense, durable, and stiff type of wood, look no further than eucalyptus.