Wood Species

Janka hardness, specific gravity, workability, and safety notes for common woods.

Color
	Red Oak	1290 lbf	$6.00	#1
	White Oak	1350 lbf	$7.00	#2
	Hard Maple	1450 lbf	$7.00	#3
	Ash	1320 lbf	$5.50	#4
	American Cherry	950 lbf	$9.00	#5
	Black Walnut	1010 lbf	$11.00	#6
	Beech	1300 lbf	$5.00	#7
	Yellow Birch	1260 lbf	$5.50	#8
	Hickory/Pecan	1820 lbf	$6.00	#9
	Teak	1070 lbf	$20.00	#10
	Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba)	2350 lbf	$8.50	#11
	Ipe (Brazilian Walnut / Lapacho)	3490 lbf	$9.00	#12
	Purple Heart	2520 lbf	$9.50	#13
	Wenge	1930 lbf	$16.00	#14
	Sapele	1360 lbf	$7.50	#15
	Santos Mahogany	2400 lbf	$8.00	#16
	Zebrawood	1830 lbf	$14.00	#17
	Merbau	1925 lbf	$8.50	#18
	Bamboo	1650 lbf	$4.50	#19
	Eucalyptus	1125 lbf	$5.50	#20
	Tigerwood	2170 lbf	$9.50	#21
	Bloodwood	2900 lbf	$14.00	#22
	Brazilian Teak (Cumaru)	3540 lbf	$8.50	#23
	Doussie (Afzelia)	1810 lbf	$11.00	#24
	Kempas	1750 lbf	$6.50	#25
	Massaranduba (Brazilian Redwood)	3190 lbf	$7.00	#26
	Peruvian Walnut	960 lbf	$9.00	#27
	Australian Cypress	1375 lbf	$6.50	#28
	Caribbean Walnut	1400 lbf	$7.50	#29
	Royal Mahogany (Andiroba)	1400 lbf	$7.00	#30
	Amendoim	1780 lbf	$7.50	#31
	Heart Pine	1225 lbf	$8.00	#32
	Caribbean Heart Pine	1240 lbf	$7.00	#33
	Chechen (Caribbean Rosewood)	2400 lbf	$9.00	#34
	Bolivian Rosewood (Morado)	1900 lbf	$12.00	#35
	Tiete Rosewood (Sirari)	3280 lbf	$13.00	#36
	Sucupira (Tiete Chestnut)	2900 lbf	$10.00	#37
	Timborana	1570 lbf	$6.50	#38
	Patagonian Rosewood (Curupay)	2800 lbf	$11.00	#39
	Brazilian Rosewood	2790 lbf	$150.00	#40
	Brazilian Ebony	3692 lbf	$15.00	#41
	Brazilian Maple	1700 lbf	$7.00	#42
	Bolivian Cherry	3650 lbf	$9.50	#43

Prices are rough US averages and vary by region, grade, and season. Popularity rank is a general estimate, not sales data.

A South American hardwood that could pass for mahogany in a lineup, and only gets more convincing as it ages.

Janka hardness: 1780 lbf

American Cherry

Cut it and it's pinkish-brown; give it a few weeks under a window and it turns into the reddish-brown patina everyone actually wants.

Janka hardness: 950 lbf

A light, shock-resistant domestic hardwood that used to be a boring, reliable default -- the emerald ash borer has made it anything but boring to source now.

Janka hardness: 1320 lbf

Australian Cypress

A softwood that didn't get the memo -- harder than red oak, termite-resistant, and dressed in honey-gold with dark knots.

Janka hardness: 1375 lbf

Not a tree, not even close -- a grass that grows absurdly fast and still earns a spot on every hardness chart because flooring doesn't care about taxonomy.

Janka hardness: 1650 lbf

Hard maple's less expensive sibling -- pale, straight-grained, and perfectly happy playing the budget alternative.

Janka hardness: 1300 lbf

The domestic hardwood everyone wants for fine furniture -- chocolate-brown, stable, and about as easy to work as hardwoods get.

Janka hardness: 1010 lbf

The name is not a marketing exaggeration -- this South American hardwood is genuinely, vividly red, and that's the entire reason anyone buys it.

Janka hardness: 2900 lbf

Bolivian Cherry

An extremely hard Bolivian hardwood whose exact identity nobody seems willing to commit to in writing -- our best guess is below.

Janka hardness: 3650 lbf

Bolivian Rosewood (Morado)

Sold as Bolivian Rosewood, Morado, or Pau Ferro, depending who's selling it -- none of which make it an actual Dalbergia rosewood.

Janka hardness: 1900 lbf

Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba)

Not cherry, not even a distant relative -- a very hard, reddish-brown Brazilian hardwood that earned the name purely by looking the part.

Janka hardness: 2350 lbf

Brazilian Ebony

Marketed as an ebony stand-in, though it's no relation to true ebony -- closer kin to katalox, and honestly a bit of a mystery wood.

Janka hardness: 3692 lbf

Brazilian Maple

Maple doesn't grow in Brazil -- this is a marketing name stretched over whichever pale hardwood happened to be available, not a real species.

Janka hardness: 1700 lbf

Brazilian Rosewood

The rosewood every other 'rosewood' on this list is trying to imitate -- CITES Appendix I since 1992, and effectively gone except as reclaimed or antique stock.

Janka hardness: 2790 lbf

Brazilian Teak (Cumaru)

No relation to actual teak whatsoever -- an extremely hard, dense Brazilian hardwood that smells faintly of vanilla and outworks most decking materials.

Janka hardness: 3540 lbf

Caribbean Heart Pine

Marketed next to true Heart Pine for looking the part -- a reddish-brown Central American and Caribbean pine that's actually its own species.

Janka hardness: 1240 lbf

Caribbean Walnut

Sold as a walnut alternative despite sharing nothing with actual walnut but a marketing department's optimism.

Janka hardness: 1400 lbf

Chechen (Caribbean Rosewood)

Sold as Caribbean Rosewood, striped bold enough to justify the name -- just not, technically, a rosewood.

Janka hardness: 2400 lbf

Doussie (Afzelia)

One tree, two names -- a durable West/Central African hardwood that's rock-stable and reddish-brown, whichever label the supplier reaches for.

Janka hardness: 1810 lbf

Over 700 species deep, so 'eucalyptus flooring' tells you almost nothing about what you're actually getting until you check the fine print.

Janka hardness: 1125 lbf

Pale, dense, and quietly the toughest domestic hardwood in the room -- the reason your butcher block hasn't given up on you yet.

Janka hardness: 1450 lbf

The resin-rich prize cut from old-growth Longleaf Pine -- mostly sold reclaimed now, since the original trees are long gone.

Janka hardness: 1225 lbf

One of the toughest domestic woods there is -- the reason your grandfather's axe handle outlived several axe heads.

Janka hardness: 1820 lbf

Ipe (Brazilian Walnut / Lapacho)

Sold under enough aliases (Brazilian Walnut, Lapacho, and more) to make a witness protection program jealous -- one extremely dense, decay-proof Brazilian hardwood underneath.

Janka hardness: 3490 lbf

A Southeast Asian hardwood that gives you a mahogany-adjacent look on a flooring budget.

Janka hardness: 1750 lbf

Massaranduba (Brazilian Redwood)

Sold as Brazilian Redwood despite having nothing to do with an actual redwood tree -- just an extremely dense decking hardwood that happens to share the color.

Janka hardness: 3190 lbf

Rot-proof and insect-proof enough to dominate the decking market -- unfortunately not proof against the demand that comes with that.

Janka hardness: 1925 lbf

Patagonian Rosewood (Curupay)

Also called Curupay or Cebil, sold as Patagonian Rosewood -- the rosewood connection is marketing, not botany.

Janka hardness: 2800 lbf

Peruvian Walnut

Black walnut's South American cousin -- darker, more evenly chocolate-brown, and a bit less patient with sunlight.

Janka hardness: 960 lbf

Cut it and it looks like an ordinary brown board playing a joke on you -- give it a few days of sunlight and the eggplant-purple punchline lands.

Janka hardness: 2520 lbf

The default domestic hardwood -- widely available, honestly priced, and the board every lumberyard assumes you mean unless you say otherwise.

Janka hardness: 1290 lbf

Royal Mahogany (Andiroba)

Sold as 'Royal Mahogany' for the marketing appeal -- it's andiroba underneath, harder than red oak and perfectly fine standing on its own name.

Janka hardness: 1400 lbf

Santos Mahogany

Rides mahogany's reputation into premium flooring aisles despite no actual family ties -- the hardness and color earned it a pass.

Janka hardness: 2400 lbf

Marketed as mahogany, related to mahogany only loosely, and honestly more interesting-looking than the wood it's standing in for.

Janka hardness: 1360 lbf

Sucupira (Tiete Chestnut)

Sold as Tiete Chestnut, and about as consistent in reported hardness as a game of telephone -- we split the difference and said so.

Janka hardness: 2900 lbf

The wood boats are built to outlast you with -- golden-brown, naturally oily, and thoroughly unbothered by weather.

Janka hardness: 1070 lbf

Tiete Rosewood (Sirari)

Another 'rosewood' that's actually closer kin to bubinga -- very hard, and it reddens with age whether the name is accurate or not.

Janka hardness: 3280 lbf

Named for the stripes, and some boards genuinely earn the name -- others show up looking suspiciously tame for a wood called Tigerwood.

Janka hardness: 2170 lbf

Sold as Brazilian Pearwood or Brazilian Oak depending on the day -- even the botanists writing about it can't fully agree what it is.

Janka hardness: 1570 lbf

About as close to black as wood gets without cheating -- striking on a guitar fingerboard, and increasingly hard to source responsibly.

Janka hardness: 1930 lbf

The reason bourbon tastes like bourbon -- a durable, water-resistant domestic hardwood with pores tight enough to trust with liquid for years.

Janka hardness: 1350 lbf

A domestic hardwood that reads a lot like maple, at a price that reads a lot better.

Janka hardness: 1260 lbf

An African hardwood that looks exactly like its name promises -- bold cream-and-brown stripes, zero subtlety, zero regrets.

Janka hardness: 1830 lbf