Hickory and hard maple are the two hardest common domestic hardwoods, and they compete directly for floors, kitchen cabinets and butcher blocks. They could hardly look more different, though. This page compares shagbark hickory, hard (sugar) maple and pecan, which is sold in the hickory group, using the Wood Handbook tables.
Hickory vs Maple: the numbers
| Property | Shagbark hickory | Sugar maple | Pecan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% MC | 1,880 lbf | 1,450 lbf | 1,820 lbf |
| Density at 12% MC | 50.3 lb/ft³ | 44.1 lb/ft³ | 46.1 lb/ft³ |
| Weight per board foot | 4.20 lb | 3.67 lb | 3.85 lb |
| Bending strength (MOR), 12% MC | 20,200 psi | 15,800 psi | 13,700 psi |
| Stiffness (MOE), 12% MC | 2.16 million psi | 1.83 million psi | 1.73 million psi |
| Crushing strength parallel to grain | 9,210 psi | 7,830 psi | 7,850 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry, tangential | 10.5% | 9.9% | 8.9% |
| Shrinkage, radial | 7.0% | 4.8% | 4.9% |
| Shrinkage, volumetric | 16.7% | 14.7% | 13.6% |
| Tangential / radial ratio (cupping tendency) | 1.5 | 2.06 | 1.82 |
| Width change per 1% MC, flatsawn (Table 13-5) | 0.411% | 0.353% | 0.315% |
| Heartwood decay resistance (Table 14-1) | slightly or nonresistant | slightly or nonresistant | slightly or nonresistant |
What the numbers mean
- Hardness: Shagbark hickory is 30% harder than Sugar maple (1,880 against 1,450 lbf), so it resists dents from furniture feet, dropped tools and wear correspondingly better.
- Weight: Shagbark hickory is 14% heavier. A 1 x 6 board 8 feet long (4 board feet nominal) weighs about 16.8 lb in shagbark hickory and 14.7 lb in sugar maple at 12% moisture content.
- Strength and stiffness: Shagbark hickory is 28% stronger in bending and 18% stiffer. Stiffness is what decides how much a shelf of the same size sags under the same load.
- Movement: a flatsawn board 10 in wide that goes from 6% to 12% moisture content (a dry winter to a humid summer indoors) swells about 0.247 in (1/4 in) in shagbark hickory and 0.212 in (7/32 in) in sugar maple, from Handbook Eq. 13-2 and the Table 13-5 coefficients. Allow for this in table tops, panels and floors.
- Decay resistance of the heartwood: Shagbark hickory: slightly or nonresistant; Sugar maple: slightly or nonresistant; Pecan: slightly or nonresistant. Sapwood of every species has low decay resistance.
- The percentages above compare the first two columns; the table also lists Pecan for comparison.
Appearance, working and what to watch for
Maple is pale, creamy and uniform, with fine, closed grain and the occasional curly or bird’s-eye figure. Hickory has strong colour contrast between white sapwood and brown heartwood, usually sold mixed as calico or rustic grade, with more visible grain. Maple gives a clean, modern look; hickory a rustic one that hides scratches and dents.
Hickory is harder and far tougher: its impact bending value in the Handbook is much higher, which is why it is used for striking-tool handles. Maple is easier to machine to a crisp edge, though both are hard on tools and burn easily with dull bits. Maple can blotch badly under stain, so it is usually left natural or dyed; hickory takes stain unevenly too because of the sapwood and heartwood mix. Both shrink and swell a lot and need acclimatising before installation, and neither is decay resistant.
Installing hard floors
Both woods are hard enough that nails can split tongues if the nailer is set too hard, so test on scrap first. Leave the manufacturer’s expansion gap at every wall; with hickory’s larger seasonal movement, too small a gap is a common cause of buckling. A floor that will see dogs and chairs will show fewer marks in rustic hickory than in clear maple, while maple is the better choice where a uniform, light floor matters more than hiding wear.
Which to choose: verdict by use
| Use | Better choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Floors in a busy family home | Hickory | Harder and tougher; rustic grades hide wear. |
| Clean, light, modern floors and cabinets | Maple | Pale and uniform. |
| Butcher blocks and cutting boards | Maple | Fine closed grain; the traditional butcher-block wood. |
| Striking-tool handles | Hickory | Much higher impact toughness. |
| Stained cabinets | Neither ideal | Maple blotches; hickory varies. Use gel stain or dye. |
| Bowling alleys and gym floors | Maple | The standard for hard-use sports floors. |
Frequently asked questions
Is hickory harder than maple?
Yes. Shagbark hickory has 1,880 lbf of Janka hardness and hard maple 1,450 lbf in the Wood Handbook, about 1.3 times as hard.
Is pecan the same as hickory flooring?
Pecan is a hickory species and is often sold together with the true hickories as “hickory/pecan”. In the Handbook it is nearly as hard (1,820 lbf) but less stiff and less tough than shagbark hickory.
Which moves more, hickory or maple?
Hickory, slightly: volumetric shrinkage is 16.7% against 14.7% for hard maple, green to ovendry. Acclimatise either before installing.
Sources and method
All property values are read from our parsed copy of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-190, 2010), a US Government publication in the public domain, the same data as the wood species database. The percentages and the board examples above are our arithmetic on those values. The values describe small, clear, straight-grained specimens: real boards with knots or sloping grain differ, and structural lumber is sized from graded design values in your local building code, not from this table.
- 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. How we build and check our data: methodology and corrections. Spotted an error? Please let us know.