American Beech

[Steve Warren]

Hello,

I've been wondering why American's don't use beech as much in furniture projects. It seems that the wood is much more accepted in Europe.
Quartersawn beech has a beautiful grain pattern with very fine dense rays. I understand that it is hard on blades because of silica content but is this the only reason we don't embrace beech?
What do you guys think?

Steve

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Steve, it is impossible to find here, so I can't use it. There are plenty of nice beech planes on the shelf in my woodshop, and you are right, it can be beautiful.

[Kevin Bourque]

Maybe it's because Americans are obsessed with oak for some reason, perhaps because there's so much of it around compared to Beech.

I still cringe when I walk into a newly built home and see shiny, plain sawn oak kitchen cabinets.

[Lee Schierer]

According to what I've read, Beech had a tendency to crack and split when air dried. However, that apparently is not a problem if it is kiln dried. The interlocking grain makes it tough to work with hand tools and it will split if you don't drill pilot holes for your screw or nails. Here's a link that tells more: Beech Characteristics (http://www.specialtywoodsolutions.com/beech.html)

I made a flag case for my father in law out of beech and it turned out very nice. My local wood supplier who does his own kiln drying gave me a sample board to try for his first batch through his kiln. It finished up pretty nicely. You'll also find that some old wooden hand planes had beech soles.

[Baxter Smith]

From a turning perspective, I believe American Beech is more prone to movement and checking when attempting to air dry than the European Beech.

[Kevin Bourque]

I agree with all the explanations above, plus Budweiser has been hogging the supply for hundreds of years.:)

[Jamie Buxton]

My local hardwood dealer stocks European Beech. It is about the same price as maple. It has become my go-to species when I need a light-colored wood -- drawers, for instance. It mills nicely, without any sign of excessive silica. In fact, one of the reasons I use it instead of maple is that the maple I get has little black mineral pockets that can chip my planer blades.

I dunno why it makes more sense to harvest European Beech and ship it here than to harvest American Beech. Something about global economics?

[Mark Bolton]

We've used American Beech extensively with the only problems being color and blotchiness. It's all KD but not steamed. You have to do a LOT of sorting for color because it can just be down right ugly. We fell into a lot of KD material that was very cheap ($350/MBF). Have used it for all sorts.

This entire stair case (other than the walnut and steel) is Beech.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E24RwR2Y3nQ/USUKs4wjN9I/AAAAAAAABRE/yEhshqjUg5g/s861/IMG_00015.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ODwJP_ZIHDc/USUK8VkS-SI/AAAAAAAABQs/UcKAAvSkic4/s861/IMG_00016.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5XPphkRAhlk/USUKfsJpKqI/AAAAAAAABQc/EnRkleVfp98/s861/IMG_00014.jpg

[glenn bradley]

Plentiful and reasonably priced on the 'correct coast' :). I have only gotten it from my local yard and the consistency is almost spooky. Of course I am not dealing in the volumes that the pros use so my sample may just be small ;). I use it for vise jaws at it mills like 'buttah' and is very tight grained. I have read that it is prone to movement but, I have not found that to be the case (I use it on jigs which must stay accurate) throughout the seasons in SoCal. Maybe that is why they sell it here(?). I have used it for small items like boxes, frames and candle holders but, that is probably because I was just burning up scraps, not due to any concerns about larger pieces. Its a few bucks a board foot out here so if you can get it reasonable, I would try some. It finishes beautifully with just a bit of oil and a topcoat.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Mark, that is a beautiful staircase!

[Mark Bolton]

I dunno why it makes more sense to harvest European Beech and ship it here than to harvest American Beech. Something about global economics?

Most you'll read says stability. European Beech is known to be a bit more stable than American as well as being steamed so color is more even. One would think not having to transport American Beech and steaming it here locally would be cheaper even if you had to cull some percentage of low-grade to twist/movement but I guess its not the case.

Once dry stability issues are much less to negligible in my opinion. I have made a couple large lock mitered mantles with the material we have. Basically a large hollow box trying to mimic a 10" thick solid beam. I dont think you could have a condition more prone to show, or fail to, movement and no signs of problems several years after they were installed. The stuff is tough though, thats for sure. I would put it closer to hickory as far as hard to work. Its tough on tooling.

At such a price we bought a few full packs (perhaps 600bd ft each) and as has been mentioned, the color an quality varies wildly once you start going through them but these were all #1C.

I think there are just too many other species available. There is simply a low end threshold on cost just to cut, mill, and dry, so it cant really get too cheap. A logger friend told me also that when you find a large Beech in the woods its almost guaranteed to be hollow. No idea why. But we got dozens and dozens 15"-16" wide boards out of these packs so these trees had to be good size.

[Mark Bolton]

Thanks Steve,
That customer is a MAJOR outdoorsman. The room it services is his trophy room with all his mounts. The balustrade is all riffle barrel blanks from Douglas Barrel here in WV. All various caliber. It was an attempt at something interesting with an eye on cost ;-)

But that entire thing, treads, risers, handrail, and newels is all American Beech.

[Ole Anderson]

So far so good on my stash of Beech (not sure which type) that I am using for drawers in the kitchen. So far the wood has been planed to 5/8", edged and glued. Easier to work than the Hickory I am using for all my raised door/drawer panels. The test will be when I dovetail all of the ends for the drawer joints. I paid $3.20/bf with over 7.5" wide being at $3.80. All kiln dried, priced rough 4/4, 48 bf quantity.

[Mark Bolton]

The pricing I posted was a fluke from a mill/drying operation shutting down and dumping inventory. It was material that no one local would ever purchase.

the material we have is very prone to tear out when surfacing, was purchased 4/4 rough, KD, but its harder to work than maple for sure.

[Larry Frank]

My name is Larry and I am obsessed with quarter sawn red oak. A good red oak board with rays is beautiful and in the mid-west, it is plentiful and reasonably priced.

I have used beech but it is not that easy to get and quite a bit more expensive.

[Steve Warren]

I really appreciate the feedback. Good discussion.

There appears to be several varieties of beech that grow in the woods around here. I'm wondering if the general attitude toward beech causes it to be mixed at the mill. Might this account for blotching and uneven color?
The old timers loved it for lathing on barns because it held on to the nail so tightly.

I have quartersawn and dried sycamore with excellent results. Flatsawn it will warp, twist, cup, crown, bow, you name it. However, quartersawn it is as gentle and tame as a baby lamb. Lays on the sticks nice and flat air drying and comes out of the kiln the same. I'm thinking this is the answer to beech and then there is the fine ray pattern.

Larry Frank, I appreciate your obsession with QS R Oak. The floor in the library/music room in our house is a combo of red, white and chestnut oak QS. Oh yea, accidentally got a few boards of sassafras in there too! When the sun hits! nice..
If memory serves the ray patter in QS beech is fine like QS sycamore but not as wild.

Steve

[Danny Hamsley]

I agree with Mark. As a Forester, I have found in my career that most sawtimber size beech in the South have heart rot or are hollow. Given that there are so many other choices for fine hardwood, beech is considered a cull tree. It is generally removed in improvement cuttings and not left as a crop tree because of the bole rot and hollowing issues.

[Dave Lewis]

We had beech flooring installed over our radiant floor in 2004. It was sourced from Tommila in southern New Hampshire, where our builder advised to pick from. I recall that the mill said it would take 2-3 months to get enuff clear stock for our ~1000 SF first floor.

We've been happy - cracks do open up in winter like maple, but it has'nt warped like some warned.

[Michael Mayo]

There are tons of Beech trees here in the NE where I live. The neighbor took down a huge beech tree a year or two ago the thing had to be 8 ft. diameter they had to use a crane to remove it. I sure wish I could have milled some of that tree as it was beautiful and solid throughout. I did get some big stumps from it and had the wifes anvil mounted to one of them in her shop until about a year after bugs started appearing from the bark which I had left on the stump. I lathed a nice round piece about 15" tall and maybe 8-10" diameter and gave it to the wife as a block to pound her jewelry stuff on. It was not dried enough when I turned it round and it did start checking bit has stayed solid and she loves pounding stuff on it. We lost a nice Magnolia tree in the back yard a couple of years ago before i really got the wood bug and i really wish i had saved some of that wood as it was awesome and beautiful wood. Very clear and smooth grained.

[Chuck Foster]

I'm with you! I rarely see it around at my suppliers. It's been a long time since I used it but it's pretty heavy and dense IIRC.

[Joe Spear]

I made the framework of my router table out of a large piece of American beech that I got at a Rockler store. I have had no problems with stability in the six years since I built the table.

[peter gagliardi]

American Beech has been downplayed by many, including suppliers for years because of "instability" , but it seems no different than most other hardwoods as long as it is harvested, milled, and dried correctly. I wonder if part of this perception isn't put out there and furthered by the very large European Beech lobby? They have huge swaths of managed forests of it over there. It seems to have almost no "life, or figure" compared to US Beech though. Add to that, that you can only buy it after it has been thicknessed through a roughing sander, so you get to clean off the outer layer that is embedded with grit particles that break off going thru the sander with your nice newly sharpened steel jointer and planer knives, and I say "No Thanks" .

[Tom Hammond]

I like beech a lot... but it seems that the only things I see made from it are patio and beach (as in "Look, there's the ocean!" beach) chairs. Narrow cuts of no more than a 1x2 size, etc, or seat slats and the like. I used some 3/8" stock to make a few kitchen utensil trays as well... but, again, all small stock uses.

So, with this "instability" reputation... is it also good in outdoor applications particularly? I was thinking about making a desk with a 22x48 top all out of beech. Does anyone have any glue-up experience using beech?

[Paul Murphy]

I glued my workbench top & base from beech that I logged in Indiana, and it glues normally. The problems I had with the beech were all in the drying stage of the project. I had my log sawn to 8/4, and stickered it in the barn. Very quickly the stock began to move, and once the stack was out of level even the tamer pieces were free to move since they were unweighted. In my case perhaps part of the problem was the log was sound, but from a large diameter branching tree, so there were some knots, etc. to disrupt the grain. I should have cut a "veneer" style log where the grain would be straighter, and then weighted the drying beech with other wood that dries straighter, such as oak.

If you can find dried beech that is straight, then I would use it. It wasn't a "commercial species" around me, so you either sawed your own logs, or called the small operations that handled low demand logs.

[seth henry]

I have had a bunch of beech band-milled and used in for basic flooring, trim and built ins in our house in vermont. I can confirm that is moves and checks a lot when drying. Quartersawn does move less but tends to check quite a bit. It is also hard to find large beech logs that are healthy as they tend to die off from beech disease which as far as I know is some kind of blight that compromises the bark and eventually kills the tree. Healthy beech above 20" are pretty rare so getting large dimensional (especially quartersawn) is tough. The heartwood is fairly large relative to the sapwood and the heartwood tends to be very volatile (although also can be very pretty).

Due to movement, beech spends a lot of time on the jointer. I would say 2/3 of my 8 foot by 5/4 planks are warped enough that you can't get a single 7/8" board milled from them. So you spend a lot of time picking through your boards for each piece you need. Our beech is fairly figured however the figure doesn't 'pop' like a yellow birch or hard maple, it is much more subtle variation in tone. Once dry it doesn't seem to move any more than other hardwoods. It is right behind hard maple in hardness and weight (compared to birch, ask, cherry which are the other woods I know)

My favorite use for it is flooring as it is very warm tone and doesn't have sharp contrast so you can pretty much just lay it down without shuffling boards. It doesn't clash with any other local hardwoods either.

There is a great place in Bristol Vermont, Lathrops Maple Supply that has it in dimensional and flooring kiln dried. I think it is under 2$/ft in both forms.

I can throw some pics up when I get back to the house if anyone is interested.

[Chris Hachet]

We've used American Beech extensively with the only problems being color and blotchiness. It's all KD but not steamed. You have to do a LOT of sorting for color because it can just be down right ugly. We fell into a lot of KD material that was very cheap ($350/MBF). Have used it for all sorts.

This entire stair case (other than the walnut and steel) is Beech.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E24RwR2Y3nQ/USUKs4wjN9I/AAAAAAAABRE/yEhshqjUg5g/s861/IMG_00015.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ODwJP_ZIHDc/USUK8VkS-SI/AAAAAAAABQs/UcKAAvSkic4/s861/IMG_00016.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5XPphkRAhlk/USUKfsJpKqI/AAAAAAAABQc/EnRkleVfp98/s861/IMG_00014.jpg

That stairscase is stunning work, sir.

[Chris Hachet]

My name is Larry and I am obsessed with quarter sawn red oak. A good red oak board with rays is beautiful and in the mid-west, it is plentiful and reasonably priced.

I have used beech but it is not that easy to get and quite a bit more expensive.

Wood Werks Supply here in Columbus has American Beech cheaply, and they ahve a very nice selection....about 2/3 the price of Hard Maple.

[Chris Hachet]

American Beech has been downplayed by many, including suppliers for years because of "instability" , but it seems no different than most other hardwoods as long as it is harvested, milled, and dried correctly. I wonder if part of this perception isn't put out there and furthered by the very large European Beech lobby? They have huge swaths of managed forests of it over there. It seems to have almost no "life, or figure" compared to US Beech though. Add to that, that you can only buy it after it has been thicknessed through a roughing sander, so you get to clean off the outer layer that is embedded with grit particles that break off going thru the sander with your nice newly sharpened steel jointer and planer knives, and I say "No Thanks" . I think the instability beech has is when used exposed to moisture. I built several things from a Beech tree harvested from a friends farm in Michigan 20 years ago, and no instability in that stuff...and it was air dried.

[Chris Hachet]

I really appreciate the feedback. Good discussion.

There appears to be several varieties of beech that grow in the woods around here. I'm wondering if the general attitude toward beech causes it to be mixed at the mill. Might this account for blotching and uneven color?
The old timers loved it for lathing on barns because it held on to the nail so tightly.

I have quartersawn and dried sycamore with excellent results. Flatsawn it will warp, twist, cup, crown, bow, you name it. However, quartersawn it is as gentle and tame as a baby lamb. Lays on the sticks nice and flat air drying and comes out of the kiln the same. I'm thinking this is the answer to beech and then there is the fine ray pattern.

Larry Frank, I appreciate your obsession with QS R Oak. The floor in the library/music room in our house is a combo of red, white and chestnut oak QS. Oh yea, accidentally got a few boards of sassafras in there too! When the sun hits! nice..
If memory serves the ray patter in QS beech is fine like QS sycamore but not as wild.

Steve

I am doing a mixed species hardwood floor for our family room, and I am really happy with the way it is coming out. glad to see someone else had the same idea.

[Mark Bolton]

That stairscase is stunning work, sir.

Thanks Chris,
To be completely honest, on close inspection there are many issues Im not at all happy with but as I mentioned it was built with an eye on cost. We didnt do the framing and were coming in behind another "guy" so it is what it is. Everyone is happy and it was a good way do do something interesting for the space. I cant say I'll ever have another customer offer up 40 riffle barrel blanks for a balustrade :p

[Brent Ring]

I had a option into some beech for awhile - I have made alot out of it. Picnic Table, Coffee/OccassionalTable, doulbe rocking bench on my front porch, my current Workbench, and misc jigs etc. I love it. I have around 1250 bd ft still under tarp just waiting foir something to come up. I like it - especially at $1 a bd ft or less. :)

[Jim Matthews]

I was called apon when a nearby Rhode Island town had what must have been a borderline tornado that took out lots of sickly trees.

The home owner had a 140' tall Beech come down ten feet from their house.
They claimed that doors slammed, furniture moved and dust rained through the attic ceiling when it fell.

It was 40" in diameter at the 30' mark - completely hollow below the first limbs.
It's a wonder it stood so long in that condition.

I managed to salvage some limbs for firewood, the rest was a complete loss.

It's a nightmare to split - it feels like it changed direction, every year.
I'll stick to Cherry and Poplar for awhile....

[Dave Lewis]

Our first floor is clear beech in alternating 4.25 & 5.25" widths. Milled by Tommila Bros - Fitzwilliam, NH.

It shrinks in the winter similar to maple.

Only negative feature is that although hard, it has chipped in a few spots (Waterlox is finish). Otherwise, we've been happy with selection.