Hickory is one of the hardest and toughest woods grown in North America, and it is often weighed against oak for floors, cabinets and furniture with a rustic look. This page compares shagbark hickory, one of the true hickories, with red and white oak using Wood Handbook data. Pecan, which is sold within the hickory group, is a little softer than the true hickories.
Hickory vs Oak: the numbers
| Property | Shagbark hickory | Northern red oak | White oak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% MC | 1,880 lbf | 1,290 lbf | 1,360 lbf |
| Density at 12% MC | 50.3 lb/ft³ | 44.1 lb/ft³ | 47.5 lb/ft³ |
| Weight per board foot | 4.20 lb | 3.67 lb | 3.96 lb |
| Bending strength (MOR), 12% MC | 20,200 psi | 14,300 psi | 15,200 psi |
| Stiffness (MOE), 12% MC | 2.16 million psi | 1.82 million psi | 1.78 million psi |
| Crushing strength parallel to grain | 9,210 psi | 6,760 psi | 7,440 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry, tangential | 10.5% | 8.6% | 10.5% |
| Shrinkage, radial | 7.0% | 4.0% | 5.6% |
| Shrinkage, volumetric | 16.7% | 13.7% | 16.3% |
| Tangential / radial ratio (cupping tendency) | 1.5 | 2.15 | 1.88 |
| Width change per 1% MC, flatsawn (Table 13-5) | 0.411% | 0.369% | 0.365% |
| Heartwood decay resistance (Table 14-1) | slightly or nonresistant | slightly or nonresistant | resistant |
What the numbers mean
- Hardness: Shagbark hickory is 46% harder than Northern red oak (1,880 against 1,290 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 northern red oak at 12% moisture content.
- Strength and stiffness: Shagbark hickory is 41% stronger in bending and 19% 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 0.221 in (7/32 in) in northern red oak, 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; Northern red oak: slightly or nonresistant; White oak: resistant. Sapwood of every species has low decay resistance.
- The percentages above compare the first two columns; the table also lists White oak for comparison.
Appearance, working and what to watch for
Hickory’s main advantage is toughness. In the Handbook’s impact bending test (the height from which a weight must fall to break a small beam) shagbark hickory scores far higher than either oak, which is why it is the classic wood for hammer and axe handles and wheel spokes. It is also much harder, so a hickory floor resists dents better than oak. The cost is workability: hickory is hard on tools, can tear out, and is more difficult to nail and screw without pre-drilling.
Hickory also moves more. Its volumetric shrinkage is among the highest of common hardwoods, so boards must be properly dried and acclimatised, and wide solid panels should be avoided. In appearance hickory has strong colour contrast between its pale sapwood and brown heartwood, often sold mixed as “calico” or rustic grade, while oak is more uniform. Neither red oak nor hickory heartwood is decay resistant; white oak is the only one of the three for outdoor use.
Working hickory
Plan for its hardness: use carbide blades and bits, take light passes, and pre-drill for nails and screws, especially near board ends. Glue joints should be machined fresh because the dense surface glazes. On floors, the extra movement means wider expansion gaps at walls and careful acclimatisation to the room before installation. In return, a finished hickory floor or table top shows wear slowly and the colour variation hides small dents.
Which to choose: verdict by use
| Use | Better choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Floors in a busy house | Hickory | Much harder than oak; hides wear in rustic grades. |
| Striking-tool handles | Hickory | Highest toughness of the three in the Handbook impact test. |
| Stained cabinets with a uniform look | Oak | More consistent colour and easier to machine. |
| Outdoor use | White oak | Hickory and red oak heartwood are not decay resistant. |
| Hand-tool woodworking | Oak | Hickory is very hard on edges and prone to tear-out. |
| Smoking meat | Hickory | A traditional smoking wood; oak is the other common choice. |
Frequently asked questions
Is hickory harder than oak?
Yes. Shagbark hickory has 1,880 lbf of Janka hardness against 1,290 lbf for northern red oak and 1,360 lbf for white oak (Wood Handbook).
Is hickory good for flooring?
Yes, it is one of the hardest domestic flooring woods. Because it shrinks and swells more than oak, acclimatise it and leave the expansion gaps the flooring maker specifies.
Is pecan the same as hickory?
Pecan is a hickory species and is often sold in the hickory group. In the Handbook it is a little softer (1,820 lbf) and less stiff than shagbark hickory.
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.