Specific Gravity of Wood

Specific gravity is defined as the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of water. Basically, any material with a specific gravity of higher than 1.0 sinks in water. Note that the definition of specific gravity for wood is different from other materials.

Specific Gravity Calculator

Species:

--------- Alder, red Ash, Black Ash, Blue Ash, Green Ash, Oregon Ash, Pumpkin Ash, White Aspen, Bigtooth Aspen, Quaking Basswood, American Beech, American Birch, Paper Birch, River Birch, Sweet Birch, Yellow Buckeye, Yellow Butternut Cedar, Atlantic white Cedar, Eastern redcedar Cedar, Incense Cedar, Northern white Cedar, Port-Orford Cedar, Western redcedar Cedar, Yellow Cherry, black Chestnut, American Cottonwood, Black Cottonwood, Eastern Douglas fir Elm, American Elm, Cedar Elm, Rock Elm, Slippery Elm, Winged Fir, Balsam Fir, California red Fir, Grand Fir, Noble Fir, Pacific silver Fir, Subalpine Fir, White Hackberry Hemlock, Eastern Hemlock, Mountain Hemlock, Western Hickory, pecan Hickory, true, Mockernut Hickory, true, Pignut Hickory, true, Shagbark Hickory, true, Shellbark Holly, American Honeylocust Larch, western Locust, black Madrone, Pacific Magnolia, Cucumbertree Magnolia, Southern Magnolia, Sweetbay Maple, Bigleaf Maple, Black Maple, Red Maple, Silver Maple, Striped Maple, Sugar Oak, red, Black Oak, red, Laurel Oak, red, Northern red Oak, red, Pin Oak, red, Scarlet Oak, red, Southern red Oak, red, Water Oak, red, Willow Oak, white, Bur Oak, white, Chestnut Oak, white, Live Oak, white, Overcup Oak, white, Post Oak, white, Swamp, chestnut Oak, white, White Persimmon, common Pine, Eastern white Pine, Jack Pine, Loblolly Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Longleaf Pine, Pitch Pine, Pond Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Red Pine, Shortleaf Pine, Slash Pine, Sugar Pine, Virginia Pine, Western white Redwood, Old growth Redwood, Young growth Sassafras Spurce, Black Spurce, Engelmann Spurce, Red Spurce, Sitka Sweetgum Sycamore, American Tamarack Tanoak Tupelo, Water Walnut, black Willow, black Yellow poplar

Custom G_b:

Moisture Content (%):

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Wood specific gravity may be referenced to the specimen’s volume at any moisture content V_MC , but only based on oven-dry mass m_ovendry .

Since the volume of wood changes based on moisture content, specific gravity varies depending on moisture content. That is why it is common to mention moisture content along with specific gravity. Many sources express specific gravity of species in their green state, which is called basic specific gravity G_b . Having the percent volumetric shrinkage from green condition to desired moisture content S_MC , it is possible to calculate the specific gravity of the material at any moisture content G_MC .

The presented calculator extracts percent volumetric shrinkage values from our database. In the case that the value is not available in our database or custom basic specific gravity is used, the calculator uses the equation below for estimating percent volumetric shrinkage from green state to oven-dry moisture content (S₀).