American chestnut (Castanea dentata) in numbers: hardness, weight, strength, shrinkage, movement and decay resistance, taken from the tables of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory’s Wood Handbook, followed by what the wood is like to work and what it is used for. The values are averages from small, clear, straight-grained test specimens; real boards with knots, sloping grain or a different moisture content will differ.
| Property | American chestnut |
|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% moisture | 540 lbf (2,402 N) |
| Janka side hardness, green | 420 lbf |
| Hardness rank | harder than 39 of the 168 woods with a 12% hardness value in our database |
| Density at 12% moisture | 30.1 lb/ft³ (482 kg/m³) |
| Weight per board foot (12%) | 2.51 lb |
| Specific gravity (ovendry weight, green volume) | 0.4 |
| Specific gravity at 12% moisture | 0.43 |
| Bending strength (modulus of rupture), 12% | 8,600 psi |
| Stiffness (modulus of elasticity), 12% | 1.23 million psi |
| Crushing strength (compression parallel to grain), 12% | 5,320 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial / tangential / volumetric | 3.4% / 6.7% / 11.6% |
| Tangential / radial shrinkage ratio | 1.97 |
| Dimensional change per 1% moisture (radial / tangential) | 0.00116 / 0.00234 |
| Impact bending (drop height to failure), 12% | 19 in. |
| Heartwood decay resistance | resistant |
What it is
American chestnut (Castanea dentata), also known as sweet chestnut, grew in commercial quantities from New England to northern Georgia before it was attacked by a blight in the 1920s. Practically all standing chestnut has since been killed by the blight, and most supplies of the lumber come from salvaged timbers. Because the wood naturally resists decay, standing dead trees in the Appalachian Mountains kept supplying substantial quantities of lumber for several decades after the blight, but that source is now exhausted.
The heartwood is grayish brown or brown and darkens with age; the sapwood is very narrow and almost white. The texture is coarse, and the growth rings are made conspicuous by several rows of large, distinct pores at the beginning of each year’s growth.
Working properties
Chestnut is moderately light in weight, moderately hard, moderately low in strength, moderately low in shock resistance and low in stiffness. It dries well and is easy to work with tools, and its tangential shrinkage from green to ovendry is 6.7%. Its heartwood is in the resistant decay class of Table 14-1, the same class as white oak and black walnut.
Weight and density
At 12% moisture content american chestnut weighs about 30.1 lb per cubic foot, so one board foot (144 cubic inches) weighs about 2.51 lb. An 8 ft board of actual size 3/4 × 5-1/2 in. (a 1×6) holds 0.229 cubic feet and weighs about 6.9 lb; an 8 ft piece 1-1/2 × 3-1/2 in. (a 2×4 size) weighs about 8.8 lb. Green wood is much heavier because of the water it holds.
Density here is ovendry weight plus 12% water, divided by volume at 12% moisture content (Wood Handbook Eq. 4-12: density = specific gravity at 12% × 62.43 lb/ft³ × 1.12).
Wood movement
The Wood Handbook gives dimensional change coefficients for each species: the fraction of its width a board gains or loses for every 1% change in moisture content, between about 6% and 14%. For american chestnut they are 0.00234 across a flatsawn face (tangential) and 0.00116 across a quartersawn face (radial).
Worked example: a flatsawn board 7-1/4 in. wide (a nominal 1×8) that goes from 6% moisture content in a heated winter house to 12% in a humid summer changes width by 7.25 × 0.00234 × 6 = 0.102 in. (about 3/32 in.). The same board quartersawn moves 0.05 in. (about 1/16 in.). Allow for this in panels, tabletops and floors; the wood movement calculator works it out for any size and moisture range.
How it compares
| Species | Janka (lbf) | Density (lb/ft³) | Bending (psi) | Stiffness (Mpsi) | Tangential shrink (%) | Decay resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American chestnut | 540 | 30.1 | 8,600 | 1.23 | 6.7 | resistant |
| White oak | 1,360 | 47.5 | 15,200 | 1.78 | 10.5 | resistant |
| Northern red oak | 1,290 | 44.1 | 14,300 | 1.82 | 8.6 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Black walnut | 1,010 | 38.5 | 14,600 | 1.68 | 7.8 | resistant |
| Sassafras | — | 32.2 | 9,000 | 1.12 | 6.2 | resistant |
| Baldcypress | 510 | 32.2 | 10,600 | 1.44 | — | resistant (old growth); moderately resistant (young growth) |
Uses
Chestnut was once used for flooring, poles, railroad crossties, furniture, caskets, boxes, shingles, crates and corestock for veneer panels. Today it appears most often as wormy chestnut, used for paneling, interior woodwork and picture frames.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is American chestnut?
American chestnut averages 540 lbf (2,402 N) on the Janka test at 12% moisture content, much softer than white oak (1,360 lbf) or northern red oak (1,290 lbf).
Can you still buy American chestnut lumber?
Mostly as salvaged wood. The blight killed practically all standing chestnut, and the supply from standing dead trees, which lasted for decades because of the wood’s decay resistance, is now exhausted. Most chestnut lumber comes from salvaged timbers, and it appears most often as wormy chestnut.
Is chestnut rot resistant?
Yes. American chestnut heartwood is in the resistant class of Wood Handbook Table 14-1, which generally gives satisfactory service above ground. For ground contact, the Handbook points to the very resistant class or preservative-treated wood.
How much does chestnut weigh?
About 30.1 lb per cubic foot at 12% moisture content, or 2.51 lb per board foot.
Sources
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-190, 2010. Chapter 2 (species descriptions), Chapter 4 (Tables 4-3, 4-4 shrinkage; Eq. 4-7, 4-9, 4-12 density), Chapter 5 (Tables 5-3b, 5-5b strength and hardness), Chapter 13 (Table 13-5 dimensional change coefficients), Chapter 14 (Table 14-1 decay resistance)
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook, 2021 edition (FPL-GTR-282)
Last reviewed: 24 October 2026. Numbers are generated from our parsed copy of the Handbook tables, so every page uses the same data. Values marked * are estimates computed with the Handbook’s own equations. Spotted an error? Please let us know.