Janka Hardness Chart

How to read this chart

Janka numbers are comparison figures, measured on clear, defect-free samples at about 12% moisture content. Real boards — with grain swirl, density variation, and different moisture — will vary around the published value. That’s fine: the chart’s job is ranking (is Hickory meaningfully harder than Oak? yes, ~40%), not certifying an individual plank. Hardness also tracks density closely, so a species’ position here roughly predicts its heft — the wood weight calculator turns that into pounds for an actual board.

How the Janka scale is measured

The test, standardized in ASTM D143, presses a steel ball 0.444″ (11.28 mm) in diameter into a clear wood sample until the ball embeds to half its diameter, and records the force required. That ball size isn’t arbitrary: embedded halfway, it leaves a circular dent of exactly 100 mm² projected area, so the number is really force over a fixed dent area — a dent-resistance figure, not strength or stiffness.

Wood being wood, direction matters. Side hardness (tested on the face or edge, across the grain) is the number every published chart reports, including this one, because floors, tabletops, and benches get dented on their faces. End hardness — into the end grain — usually runs somewhat higher, which is one reason end-grain cutting boards outlast face-grain ones. Values are taken at ~12% moisture content; wetter wood tests softer, and the same moisture swings drive the seasonal sizing covered in our wood movement guide.

The hardness tiers at a glance

• Soft (under 900 lbf): 18 of the 55 species here — e.g. Balsa (70 lbf), Yellow Poplar (540 lbf), American Elm (830 lbf).
• Medium (900–1,500 lbf): 16 of the 55 species here — e.g. Aromatic Red Cedar (900 lbf), Iroko (1,260 lbf), Hard Maple (Sugar) (1,450 lbf).
• Hard (1,500–2,300 lbf): 9 of the 55 species here — e.g. Canarywood (1,520 lbf), Yellowheart (1,790 lbf), Bocote (2,010 lbf).
• Very hard (over 2,300 lbf): 12 of the 55 species here — e.g. Bubinga (2,410 lbf), Bloodwood (2,900 lbf), Lignum Vitae (4,500 lbf).

Landmarks worth memorizing

• 350–500: soft, fast-denting — Cedar, Pine, Basswood. Carving and paint-grade country.
• 950–1,450: the furniture-and-flooring heartland — Cherry, Walnut, Oak, Ash, Hard Maple.
• 1,700–2,700: serious wear resistance — Hickory, Padauk, Purpleheart, Jatoba. Tool handles and high-traffic floors.
• 3,000+: deck-grade exotics — Ipe, Cumaru — hard on blades, gorgeous underfoot, pre-drill everything.

The hardest woods in the chart

The hardest wood in this chart is Lignum Vitae at 4,500 lbf — about 3.5× the Northern Red Oak benchmark (1,290 lbf). Here is the list of woods by hardness, top 10 first; even #10, Purpleheart (2,520 lbf), is roughly 2.0× Red Oak.

1. Lignum Vitae — 4,500 lbf
2. Ipe — 3,510 lbf
3. Cumaru — 3,330 lbf
4. Gaboon Ebony — 3,080 lbf
5. Cocobolo — 2,960 lbf
6. Bloodwood — 2,900 lbf
7. Olivewood — 2,700 lbf
8. Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry) — 2,690 lbf
9. Osage Orange — 2,620 lbf
10. Purpleheart — 2,520 lbf

9 of these 10 are imported species. The hardest domestic wood here is Osage Orange (2,620 lbf, 9th overall), followed by Shagbark Hickory / Pecan (1,820 lbf). Every figure is a side-hardness average at about 12% moisture, so read the order as a ranking rather than a guarantee: individual boards vary, and species a few dozen lbf apart are effectively tied.

The softest woods in the chart

The softest wood here is Balsa at 70 lbf — Red Oak takes about 18× the force to dent to the same depth, and the hardest entry takes about 64×. The 10 softest woods, softest first:

1. Balsa — 70 lbf
2. Paulownia — 300 lbf
3. Quaking Aspen — 350 lbf
4. Western Red Cedar — 350 lbf
5. Eastern White Pine — 380 lbf
6. American Basswood — 410 lbf
7. Butternut — 490 lbf
8. Western Hemlock — 500 lbf
9. Bald Cypress — 510 lbf
10. Yellow Poplar — 540 lbf

4 of these 10 are softwoods; the other 6 are not (more on that below). Soft woods dent easily but cut, carve, and take paint with little effort, which is why they show up as carving stock and paint-grade work, where a dent costs little. As above, these are side-hardness averages, not guarantees for any one board.

Wood hardness by use: what Janka rating do you need?

Match the rating to how the surface gets abused. The ranges below are common rules of thumb, not standards, and every species named comes straight from the chart.

• Flooring: about 1,000 lbf and up. 33 of the 55 species clear it. Domestic hardwoods between 1,000 and 1,500 lbf: Black Walnut (1,010 lbf), Yellow Birch (1,260 lbf), Northern Red Oak (1,290 lbf), American Beech (1,300 lbf), White Ash (1,320 lbf), White Oak (1,360 lbf), Hard Maple (1,450 lbf). Among them, Northern Red Oak is the traditional flooring benchmark. For heavy traffic, step up to Honey Locust (1,580 lbf), Black Locust (1,700 lbf), Shagbark Hickory / Pecan (1,820 lbf).
• Cutting boards: 900–1,500 lbf, with tight pores. 16 species fall in that window; the classic domestic trio is Hard Maple (1,450 lbf), Black Walnut (1,010 lbf), Black Cherry (950 lbf). Hardness isn’t the whole filter: Northern Red Oak sits inside the window, but its open pores are why our end grain cutting board guide skips it. Try your picks in the cutting board designer.
• Furniture and tabletops: roughly 900–1,500 lbf where the surface takes daily abuse. Frames, carcases, and painted pieces can go softer (18 species here sit below 900 lbf). Hardness says nothing about seasonal movement, so size wide tops with the wood movement calculator.
• Tool handles and mallets: choose for toughness first. The Wood Handbook ties top-grade hickory to tool handles because handles need high shock resistance, puts white ash mainly in nonstriking handles, and lists lignumvitae among mallet woods. In the chart: Shagbark Hickory / Pecan (1,820 lbf), White Ash (1,320 lbf), and Lignum Vitae (4,500 lbf).

Hardwood vs. softwood: not the same as hard vs. soft

Hardwood and softwood are botanical labels, not hardness ratings. Hardwoods come from angiosperms (flowering, mostly broadleaf trees) and softwoods from gymnosperms, chiefly conifers. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory’s Wood Handbook notes that some softwoods are harder than some hardwoods, and the reverse. This chart shows it.

Its 7 softwood entries run from 350 to 900 lbf. The hardest, Aromatic Red Cedar, out-dents 8 of the domestic hardwoods listed: Quaking Aspen (350 lbf), American Basswood (410 lbf), Butternut (490 lbf), Yellow Poplar (540 lbf), Red Alder (590 lbf), Sassafras (630 lbf), American Sycamore (770 lbf), American Elm (830 lbf). The Wood Handbook makes the same point with Douglas-fir versus basswood and aspen.

The reverse holds too: Balsa is a flowering tree, so it is a hardwood, yet at 70 lbf it is the softest entry here. The Wood Handbook calls it the lightest and softest of all woods on the market.

One caution on this chart’s own labels: only its Softwood group is a botanical class. Exotic just means imported (most imported tropical woods are hardwoods, per the Wood Handbook), and Bamboo, filed there too, is a grass rather than a tree.

Wood hardness chart PDF: download or print

A printable wood hardness chart PDF is available: download the Janka wood hardness chart as a PDF, free, with no sign-up. It lists all 55 species from softest to hardest, with hardness in both pounds-force (lbf) and newtons, plus each species’ type, on a single table built for paper. It runs from Balsa (70 lbf) at the top to Lignum Vitae (4,500 lbf) at the bottom, which makes it a handy shop-wall reference or lumberyard cheat sheet.

Prefer to print straight from your browser? Use the Print this chart button above the table, or your browser’s print command on this page. Either way you get the same complete 55-species chart, whatever search, filter, or sort is active on screen, and the rest of the page stays out of the printout.