Which wood species moves least with the seasons?
White pine moves the least of the fourteen species here across a dry winter to a humid summer; hickory moves almost twice as much. Full ranking, and why the sawing decision usually matters more than the species choice.
White pine moves the least of the fourteen species here — about 3/16" across a 12" flat-sawn board between 30% and 70% relative humidity.
Hickory moves the most, about 5/16" over the same board and the same humidity swing — 94% more movement from species choice alone.
How that is worked out
- Movement is width × a species coefficient × the swing in moisture content, and the coefficient is the only thing species changes — the arithmetic itself is identical for all fourteen.
- Run the same 12" flat-sawn board through the same 30–70% humidity swing for every species and only the coefficient moves: White pine at 0.00212 per 1% MC against Hickory at 0.00411.
- This ranks flat-sawn boards, the way most lumber is actually cut. Quarter-sawing any one of these species cuts its own movement by roughly half — a bigger lever than switching species, and the two stack.
Movement of a 12" board, 30–70% RH, least to most
| Species | Flat sawn | Quarter sawn | Flat sawn, % of width |
|---|---|---|---|
| White pine | 3/16" | 1/16" | 1.4% |
| Cedar | 3/16" | 1/16" | 1.6% |
| Mahogany | 3/16" | 1/8" | 1.6% |
| Cherry | 3/16" | 1/8" | 1.7% |
| Douglas fir | 3/16" | 1/8" | 1.8% |
| Walnut | 1/4" | 1/8" | 1.9% |
| Ash | 1/4" | 1/8" | 1.9% |
| Sapele | 1/4" | 1/8" | 1.9% |
| Soft maple | 1/4" | 1/8" | 2.0% |
| Poplar | 1/4" | 1/8" | 2.0% |
| Hard maple | 5/16" | 1/8" | 2.4% |
| White oak | 5/16" | 1/8" | 2.5% |
| Red oak | 5/16" | 1/8" | 2.5% |
| Hickory | 5/16" | 3/16" | 2.8% |
Worth knowing
- These are Wood Handbook coefficients — measured properties that do not go stale, but do vary between trees. A species figure is a good bet across a stack of boards and no promise about the one in your hand.
- The humidity swing is about the room, not the region. A heated house in a cold climate can be drier in January than a mild coastal climate ever gets, whatever the species on the floor.
- This uses the tangential coefficient (flat sawn), which is the worse case and the common one. A species low on this list quarter-sawn can move less than a species high on it flat-sawn — the cut and the species both matter, and cut is usually the bigger lever.
Work out your own numbers
- Wood movement
How far a panel expands and shrinks with the seasons, and what that means for the joint holding it.
- Panel glue-up calculator
How many boards it takes to glue up a target panel width, and how much wider to glue up so the rip lands clean.
Related questions
- Which hardwood moves the least with humidity?
- Mahogany and cherry are the most stable common hardwoods on this list, both moving noticeably less than oak or hard maple across the same humidity swing. White pine and cedar, both softwoods, move even less than either.
- Does quarter sawn wood really move less?
- Yes, by roughly half, in every species checked here — it is the radial coefficient instead of the tangential one, and the ratio between them is fairly consistent across species. Choosing quarter-sawn stock buys more stability than choosing a different species does.
- Why does hickory move more than pine?
- Denser woods generally have more cell wall material to take on and release moisture, and hickory's coefficients are among the highest measured of any domestic species. It is the tradeoff for the hardness that makes hickory a good tool handle: the same structure that resists denting also swells and shrinks more.