by Professor Gene Wengert
Q.
I'm looking to locate a chart, graph or text regarding the hardness of different woods. For example, we just put in solid "Red" Birch kitchen cabinets and want to make a kitchen table to match. Is the Birch hard enough to take a "grandchild" beating over the years, especially at the edges, or is another wood a better choice?
A.
There is a book called THE WOOD HANDBOOK which is available from your local library. It is a USDA Agriculture Handbook (No. 57). Your congressman in DC can also help you get it.
Yellow birch is the hardest birch and is quite hard. The others are not so hard and probably will show quite a bit of generational wear and tear!
But I would rather have a few historical dents than a piece of plastic that looks like plastic.
Professor Gene Wengert is Extension Specialist in Wood Processing at the Department of Forestry, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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