Wood Species

Name	Wood	Janka Rating
Chestnut		540

Chestnut
Castanea dentata

Also known as: American chestnut, Chinkapin, Sweet chestnut

Origin: North America

Appearance:

The sapwood of chestnut is white to light brown, while the heartwood is grayish-brown to brown in color. The species has a straight, sometimes spiraled grain and is fairly coarse in texture.

Resistance, Durability:

Chestnut has a high resistance to decay. The wood remains smooth under friction and is reported to have no odor. Chestnut is difficult and time consuming to dry properly.

Janka Hardness: 540

As a flooring choice, chestnut is one of the softer species available. It is just under thirty percent harder than white pine, is sixty percent as hard as cedar, is fifty-four percent as hard as teak, just under forty-two percent as hard as red oak, roughly thirty-seven percent as hard as hard maple, about one third as hard as wenge, and only approaches twenty-five percent that of santos mahogany's ranking of 2200.

Workability:

Chestnut is somewhat difficult to saw properly. Pre-boring is suggested yet the wood holds nails well once applied. Glue holds well with chestnut flooring. This species sands fairly well but does mar somewhat easily under heavy traffic.

Main Uses:

Chestnut's uses include flooring, flooring accents, fine furniture, interior trim, and tables.

What is a Janka Rating?

"It is one of the best measures of the ability of a wood species to withstand denting and wear. It is also a good indicator of how hard a species is to saw or nail.

The hardness of wood usually varies with the direction of the wood grain.

A common use of Janka hardness ratings is to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring."

Colored Bamboo

Some species have different janka ratings depending on how they have been treated.

Bamboo is one example of this. If left with a natural finish, Bamboo falls at 1380 on the hardness scale. If you carbonize it to get a darker color, the rank falls to 1180.