Red pine (Pinus resinosa) 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 | Red pine |
|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% moisture | 560 lbf (2,491 N) |
| Janka side hardness, green | 340 lbf |
| Hardness rank | harder than 43 of the 168 woods with a 12% hardness value in our database |
| Density at 12% moisture | 32.2 lb/ft³ (515 kg/m³) |
| Weight per board foot (12%) | 2.68 lb |
| Specific gravity (ovendry weight, green volume) | 0.41 |
| Specific gravity at 12% moisture | 0.46 |
| Bending strength (modulus of rupture), 12% | 11,000 psi |
| Stiffness (modulus of elasticity), 12% | 1.63 million psi |
| Crushing strength (compression parallel to grain), 12% | 6,070 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial / tangential / volumetric | 3.8% / 7.2% / 11.3% |
| Tangential / radial shrinkage ratio | 1.89 |
| Dimensional change per 1% moisture (radial / tangential) | 0.0013 / 0.00252 |
| Impact bending (drop height to failure), 12% | 26 in. |
| Heartwood decay resistance | slightly or nonresistant |
What it is
Red pine (Pinus resinosa), often called Norway pine, grows in New England, New York, Pennsylvania and the Great Lake States. The heartwood is pale red to reddish brown and the sapwood nearly white with a yellow tinge, generally 2 to 4 in. wide. The Handbook says the wood resembles the lighter-weight wood of the southern pine group.
It is generally straight grained, less uniform in texture than eastern white pine, and somewhat resinous. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with Norway; the nickname is old and its origin is uncertain.
Working properties
Red pine is moderately heavy, moderately strong and stiff, moderately soft and moderately high in shock resistance. In our data it has 560 lbf of Janka hardness and 11,000 psi of bending strength, both above eastern white pine. Shrinkage is moderately high, but the Handbook notes that it is not difficult to dry and is dimensionally stable once dried.
Its wide sapwood takes preservative readily, which is why red pine is a common species for treated lumber and utility poles in the northern states. The heartwood is in the slightly or nonresistant decay class of Table 14-1, so untreated red pine should be kept dry.
Weight and density
At 12% moisture content red pine weighs about 32.2 lb per cubic foot, so one board foot (144 cubic inches) weighs about 2.68 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 7.4 lb; an 8 ft piece 1-1/2 × 3-1/2 in. (a 2×4 size) weighs about 9.4 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 red pine they are 0.00252 across a flatsawn face (tangential) and 0.0013 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 × 0.00252 × 6 = 0.11 in. (about 1/8 in.). The same board quartersawn moves 0.057 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red pine | 560 | 32.2 | 11,000 | 1.63 | 7.2 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Eastern white pine | 380 | 24.5 | 8,600 | 1.24 | 6.1 | moderately resistant (old growth only); otherwise slightly or nonresistant |
| Jack pine | 570 | 30.1 | 9,900 | 1.35 | 6.6 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Longleaf pine | 870 | 41.3 | 14,500 | 1.98 | 7.5 | moderately resistant (old growth only); otherwise slightly or nonresistant |
| Ponderosa pine | 460 | 28.0 | 9,400 | 1.29 | 6.2 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Radiata pine | 750 | 30.0† | 11,700 | 1.48 | — | not rated |
Uses
Red pine is used mainly for lumber, cabin logs and pulpwood, and to a lesser extent for piles, poles, posts and fuel. The lumber serves many of the same purposes as eastern white pine: building construction, including treated lumber for decking, siding, flooring, sashes, doors, general millwork, boxes, pallets and crates.
Frequently asked questions
Is Norway pine the same as red pine?
Yes. Norway pine is a common name for red pine, Pinus resinosa, a native North American species.
Is red pine good for log cabins?
It is one of the traditional cabin log species in the Great Lakes region: straight, moderately strong and stable once dried. Logs need good roof overhangs and a raised foundation because the wood is not decay resistant.
Is red pine a hard pine?
It is moderately soft: 560 lbf of Janka hardness against 380 for eastern white pine and 870 for longleaf pine (Wood Handbook).
How heavy is red pine?
About 32.2 lb per cubic foot at 12% moisture content, or 2.68 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.