Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis)
Description: Yellow birch has a white sapwood and light, reddish brown heartwood. The wood is generally straight-grained with a fine uniform texture. Generally characterized by a plain and often curly or wavy pattern.
Main Uses: Furniture, millwork and paneling, doors, flooring, kitchen cabinets, turnings and toys.
Physical Properties: The wood of yellow birch is heavy, hard and strong. It has very good bending properties, with good crushing strength and shock resistance.
Availability: Reasonable availability, but more limited if selected for color.
Working Properties: The wood works fairly easily, glues well with care, takes stain extremely well, and nails and screws satisfactorily where pre-boring is advised. It dries rather slowly with little degrade, but it has moderately high shrinkage, so it's susceptible to movement in performance.
| Machining | Nailing | Screwing | Gluing | Finishing |
| Good | Fair | Poor | Fair | Excellent |
Strength and Mechanical Properties: (inch-pound)
| Moisture Content | Green-12% |
| Specific Gravity | 0.48-0.65 |
| Static Bending: Modulus of Rupture (lbf/in^2) | 6,400-16,900 |
| Static Bending: Modulus of Elasticity (10^6 lbf/in^2) | 1.17-2.17 |
| Static Bending: Work to Maximum Load (in-lbf/in^3) | 15.7-20.8 |
| Impact Bending to Grain (in) | 29-33 |
| Compression Parallel to Grain (lbf/in^2) | 3,540-7,110 |
| Compression Perpendicular to Grain (lbf/in^2) | 360-690 |
| Shear Parallel to Grain (lbf/in^2) | 1,130-1,700 |
| Tension Perpendicular to Grain (lbf/in^2) | 560-570 |
| Side Hardness (lbf) | 660-950 |
Source: American Hardwood Information Center, Species Guide