The hardest and softest woods in the Wood Handbook
By Lucas Anderson · Published · Data: Wood Handbook 2010
The hardest wood in the USDA Wood Handbook tables is ipe at 3,680 lbf; the softest is ceiba at 240 lbf. All of the twelve hardest are tropical imports, and the softest end is shared by light conifers, imports and a few U.S. hardwoods such as quaking aspen.
The hardest twelve
Ipe heads the list at 3,680 lbf, followed by marishballi (3,570 lbf) and manbarklak (3,480 lbf). Every one of the top twelve is an imported wood, and so is everything down to rank 15. The first U.S. species is pignut hickory at 2,140 lbf, in 16th place. Of the twenty hardest woods, 14 come from Tropical America, 2 from Africa, 2 from Asia and Oceania and 2 from the United States.
These woods are also heavy. None of the ten hardest has a specific gravity below 0.71, against a median of 0.49 for all 155. Hardness is not simply weight, though. Kaneelhart is the heaviest wood in the handbook (specific gravity 0.96) yet ranks 8th for hardness, while Indian rosewood reaches 3,170 lbf at only 0.75. The guide to density and hardness looks at those exceptions in detail.
The softest twelve
At the other end, ceiba measures 240 lbf, the lowest figure in the tables and about one fifteenth of ipe. It is also the lightest wood listed, at a specific gravity of 0.25. Behind it the list is crowded: five woods share 350 lbf (Atlantic white-cedar, black cottonwood, quaking aspen, subalpine fir and western redcedar). Of the fifteen softest, nine are U.S. softwoods, three are U.S. hardwoods and three are imports, and none has a specific gravity above 0.37.
The presence of quaking aspen, black cottonwood and American basswood near the bottom is a reminder that “hardwood” is a botanical label. Those three are broadleaved trees and still softer than most conifers in the list; hardwood vs softwood has the full numbers.
Extremes within each group
Ranking all 155 woods together mixes very different timber. Within each of the three groups on this site, the spread looks like this:
| Group | Hardest | Softest | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. hardwoods | Pignut hickory 2,140 lbf | Black cottonwood 350 lbf | 6.1× |
| U.S. softwoods | Longleaf pine 870 lbf | Northern white-cedar 320 lbf | 2.7× |
| Imported woods | Ipe 3,680 lbf | Ceiba 240 lbf | 15.3× |
The imported group spans the whole scale, from ceiba to ipe. U.S. hardwoods run from 350 lbf to 2,140 lbf, and U.S. softwoods sit in a narrow band: the hardest, longleaf pine, reaches only 870 lbf, which is still harder than 17 of the 53 U.S. hardwoods.
By region of origin
The handbook files its imported woods by region, which gives a second way to split the list. The table shows how hardness is spread in each region, with the U.S. species as one block:
| Region | Woods | Median | Hardest |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 90 | 755 | Pignut hickory 2,140 lbf |
| Tropical America | 38 | 1,650 | Ipe 3,680 lbf |
| Africa | 14 | 1,385 | Azobe 3,350 lbf |
| Asia and Oceania | 13 | 1,290 | Indian rosewood 3,170 lbf |
Tropical America stands out. Its 38 woods have a median of 1,650 lbf, more than twice the U.S. median of 755 lbf, and it supplies both ends of the whole scale: ipe and ceiba come from the same region. The U.S. block is the most compact. Its softest wood, northern white-cedar, measures 320 lbf and its hardest 2,140 lbf, a ratio of 6.7 to 1, against 15.3 to 1 for Tropical America.
Within one family
Even a single botanical family can cover a wide stretch of the scale. The 15 oaks run from southern red oak at 1,060 lbf to tropical oak (roble) at 2,500 lbf. The 13 pines go from eastern white pine at 380 lbf to Caribbean pine at 1,240 lbf, more than a threefold spread inside one genus. The seven true firs, by contrast, sit between 350 lbf and 500 lbf. When a seller names only the family (“oak”, “pine”), the species matters; the oak and pine pages list every member.
Where the familiar hard woods fall
Among U.S. woods the hickories lead. The four hickories in the handbook are the four hardest U.S. species, from 1,810 lbf to 2,140 lbf (pignut hickory 16th, mockernut hickory 19th, shagbark hickory 22nd and shellbark hickory 24th of 155), and black locust follows at 1,700 lbf. Against the imports they are mid-table: 15 imported woods are harder than the hardest hickory. Jarrah (1,910 lbf) and purpleheart (1,860 lbf) sit among the hickories.
A practical way to read these lists is to start from a wood you know. Take sugar maple at 1,450 lbf: ipe is 2.5 times as hard, and eastern white pine has 26% of its hardness. The comparer will put any three woods on the same bars, and the finder lists every wood above or below a Janka figure you type in. The complete order is on the Janka scale page.
Sources and method
USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material (2010, FPL-GTR-190), Tables 4-3 and 4-4 (shrinkage) and 5-3b and 5-5b (strength and hardness). Public domain. Medians, counts, ranks, correlations and percentages are calculated by TimberLedger from those tables across the 155 woods on this site. Data as of: Wood Handbook 2010 edition (published test averages of small clear specimens). How we use the data.