What is the heaviest common wood species?
Hickory, at about 17 lb for an 8-foot 1x6 kiln-dried — more than twice cedar's 8 lb in the same size. Weight for every species this site has data for, and why density tracks hardness only loosely.
Hickory is the heaviest of the fourteen species this site has data for — an 8' 1x6 in it weighs about 17.0 lb, kiln-dried.
Cedar is the lightest, at about 7.7 lb for the identical board — 122% less than Hickory.
How that is worked out
- Weight is volume × density, and the volume is the same 96" × 6" × 1" board for every species — only the density changes.
- Hickory runs 51 lb/ft³ against Cedar's 23 lb/ft³, and that ratio is the whole difference in the table below.
- This uses each species' density at about 8% moisture content — kiln-dried, the state lumber is sold at indoors. Green off the saw, every one of these numbers is a good deal higher.
Weight of an 8' 1x6, kiln-dried, heaviest first
| Species | Density (lb/ft³) | Weight of an 8' 1x6 |
|---|---|---|
| Hickory | 51 | 17.0 lb |
| White oak | 47 | 15.7 lb |
| Red oak | 44 | 14.7 lb |
| Hard maple | 44 | 14.7 lb |
| Ash | 42 | 14.0 lb |
| Sapele | 42 | 14.0 lb |
| Walnut | 38 | 12.7 lb |
| Soft maple | 38 | 12.7 lb |
| Mahogany | 37 | 12.3 lb |
| Cherry | 35 | 11.7 lb |
| Douglas fir | 34 | 11.3 lb |
| Poplar | 29 | 9.7 lb |
| White pine | 25 | 8.3 lb |
| Cedar | 23 | 7.7 lb |
Worth knowing
- Density is a species average from the USDA Wood Handbook at roughly 8% moisture content. It varies between trees, so treat a single board as somewhere near this figure, not exactly on it.
- Density and Janka hardness track each other loosely but not exactly — hickory tops both lists here, but sapele is denser than ash while being softer, because hardness and density measure different things about the same wood.
- Every one of these weights goes up substantially green off the saw. The next page in this cluster ranks how much.
Work out your own numbers
- Weight calculator
What a board or a stack of sheet goods weighs — for shelf brackets, a car boot, or a freight quote.
Related questions
- Is hickory heavier than oak?
- Yes — hickory runs 51 lb/ft³ against white oak's 47 and red oak's 44, so an identical board is noticeably heavier in hickory. All three are on the dense end of common domestic species.
- What is the lightest common hardwood?
- Poplar, at 29 lb/ft³ — genuinely a hardwood by the botanical definition, but light enough that an 8' 1x6 in it weighs barely more than the same board in cedar, a softwood. Cedar itself is the lightest species on this whole list.
- Does a heavier wood mean a harder one?
- Usually, but not reliably enough to guess by. Density and Janka hardness correlate because both come from how much solid cell wall material is packed into the wood, but the correlation is loose — check the actual figure rather than assuming the heavier board in your hand is also the harder one.