Uses for beech.

[Larry Edgerton]

I have not used a lot of beech in my shop, and what little I did use I was not impressed with, but it was of unknown origin so to be fair I will ask of impressions, especially from pros who have to make a profit with their work as that is a different criteria.

The reason I ask is that my property has a lot of tall straight beech that are in a mature forest, so not a lot of wind twist, 30-40' to the first branch and 20-30" diameter at chest height. I have the beech blight and have lost the most defective trees in the last year, but the straight trees have the blight as well. I just got all the Ash trees cleaned up!

Is the wood worth having it sawed and dried? What do you use it for. Stability? General impressions.

Its funny, I have used woods from all over the world, but have not used the species that surrounds my shop.:D

[Jim Becker]

Larry, I really haven't used beech myself, but I do use a lot of wood off my own property...largely poplar and walnut to-date. I'm about to have to take down more ash trees and may get some of the larger stuff milled up. The tree guy who's working with the US Forestry Service on a fungus study on 6 of my walnut trees also mills lumber, so I'll likely work things out with him in that respect. I do have one (and only one) large beech tree on my property and I'd certainly consider getting it milled if it had to come down. Like yours, it's somewhat protected so I'm thinking it shouldn't be too stressed.

I personally like the idea of using lumber from our property in projects...it's far more satisfying than creating firewood for "someone" to just burn (we don't really use much if any) and that's a good thing, IMHO. The only "downside" is the wait for it to be usable. :)

[Rich Riddle]

It makes phenomenal workbenches and competes with maple. In Europe, you nearly always see Beech benches. Ikea sells tons of flexible furniture manufactured from it.

[Larry Edgerton]

I burn wood for heat but I have enough property that the dead and dying provide me with all I need. There is enough Beech on the property for twenty years of heat, so storage would be a problem. I made all of the doors in my house out of beetle kill ash, and it is pretty cool except for the fact that all my ash trees are gone.

I find all the species dying a bit worrisome on a larger than me scale. On my own property since I have bought it I have lost all of my birch, ash, and now beech. All I have left is maple, and some of those are showing signs of damage from acid rain. We get wind currents from Chicago that come up the lake and come inland and turn to rain when they hit the cooler temps inland, dropping the crud that they pick up in Chicago.

[John Vernier]

Beech is also the preferred wood for making wooden planes. There's much more interest in that kind of work than there used to be, and people are often trying to find sources for good straight billets of quartersawn beech. It needs to be carefully sawn and dried, though. You might find a lot more opinions if you post this on the Neanderthal Haven forum.

I've also used it for wooden vise screws, and looking at old tools it seems to have been the major utility wood for all sorts of handles and other fixtures. It's hard-wearing and dense, but easier to work than hard maple.

[rudy de haas]

1) American beech is marginally harder than red oak and makes stunning flooring. We ended up using natural hickory because my wife didn't like the reds in beech, but I certainly did. It is also very stable and so nicely suited for depressing things like coffins or fun things like wood toys and kitchen cabinet doors or drawer fronts.

2) in the short term acid rain effects can be countered using any agent that balances out the ph effect. Lime, for example, works. This can be expensive and, depending on water flows, frustrating if the acreage is small enough that you get run off onto roads or a neighbor's deforested lands. (A soluable material applied after long dry periods helps, but nothing really beats throwing money at the problem.)

Here in Sunny lethbridge the city water I use for the few trees on our lot (urban, of course) is heavily basic so to keep them healthy I spread sulphur. Very effective and not too expensive in absolute terms because the area is so small. Still, if you think in terms of dollars per tree it's worth exploring -at least see if anyone involved in conservation or forestry in your area can get you an appropriate agent at minimal cost.

[Mel Fulks]

Most of the parquet floors I've seen have had some beech. Lot of old utilitarian kitchen bowls are beech.

[John Lankers]

Larry, don't burn it.
Beech is a tight and straight grained hardwood excellent for jigs, tools, handles, workbenches as already mentioned as well as flooring. Also if you're into clean and straight grain lines it can make nice furniture and it takes stains well.
It tends to deteriorate quicker in a damp or exterior environment.
I personally keep some 8/4 and 12/4 beech for shop use.

[John Lankers]

Most of the parquet floors I've seen have had some beech. Lot of old utilitarian kitchen bowls are beech.

Most wooden kitchen utensils (haven't seen a whisk made from beech yet :D) and butcher blocks were made from beech before the advent of bamboo.

[Alan Beech]

I frequently use English Beech; a near rerlative of American Beech I think.

I find it has mainly straight grain, is a tough and hard timber. Needs to be dried down to 8% or maybe a bit less. Bland colour, no outrageous grain.

Quater sawn Beech used for handplanes, in the UK many secondary furniture parts are/were made from it. If not thoroughly dried then you will get some movement from planks.

I don't find much movement when cutting to size but I do leave a day or two after cutting to see what will happen to it.

Plank it up, give a couple years to air dry and then get a local kiln to finalise the drying and you will not be sorry.

Al

[Ole Anderson]

When I redid the kitchen, I constructed all of the drawer boxes from Beech. Very nice.

[Jim Becker]

I find all the species dying a bit worrisome on a larger than me scale. On my own property since I have bought it I have lost all of my birch, ash, and now beech. All I have left is maple, and some of those are showing signs of damage from acid rain.

Yea, I'm similarly concerned here. I'm losing ash pretty quickly and a good portion of my black walnut is gone. (One reason that the US Forestry Service is doing the study on a fungus that's preventing walnut exports...I'm going to lose those particular trees anyway, so participating in the research project is a way to help the industry...some of the folks involved actually came down from Mpls/StPaul) Happily, I have a lot of poplar saplings that are filling in some of the areas where other trees have succumbed to "whatever". But what was a very large front lawn with reasonable tree shade is now pretty much full sun exposure...we've lost a lot of trees; some from wind blow-down, but many others from 'affliction'.

[John K Jordan]

I personally like the idea of using lumber from our property in projects...it's far more satisfying than creating firewood for "someone" to just burn (we don't really use much if any) and that's a good thing, IMHO. The only "downside" is the wait for it to be usable. :)

Does your state have a Forestry Greenbelt? Make a long-term forestry plan to grow and harvest trees and the property taxes are cut significantly. It's just like an ag greenbelt but doesn't have to show income every year since trees take a little time to grow. I think here you need a certain minimum number of acres in woods.

Today I chainsawed and skidded at a neighbors until I got dizzy with the heat and went to the house. (that's why I'm sitting inside right now) Some of us are so fortunate to live where hardwoods are everywhere. A friend from a western state visited once and loaded her station wagon down with walnut and cherry slabs and chunks such that the springs were bottomed out, then took off across the country. The only wood in her area is pine and the like. She was so sick of pine.

JKJ

[Kevin Jenness]

Beech is not what I would call real stable in terms of movement in service, at least on paper. I admit my only real experience with American beech is in some old plane bodies, but according to the Woodweb shrinkulator it moves slightly more than sugar maple and slightly less than yellow birch and shagbark hickory. If I had some sizeable beech trees I would probably quartersaw them, as the movement in width would be minimized and the ray fleck though subtle is attractive.

[Jim Becker]

I don't know, John, but I only have 3.8 acres, so most "easements" and other types of tax advantages available to landowners are not really practical to pursue.

[Frederick Skelly]

Larry, I second the folks who mentioned using it for wooden planes. The Neanders are always interested in sources of beech, if you're inclined to saw it and sell it. Heck, some might buy fresh cut billets (oversized) and dry it themselves. I'm doing that right now with a hunk of mesquite I bought from a guy online. (So far so good.)

[Jim Andrew]

Larry, have you considered buying a used bandmill and sawing up a bunch of these trees? I bought one 10 years ago, and every old building on the farm is full of lumber now. Timberking 1600's are available used and have hydraulics. And I have seen some sell very reasonably.

[Bradley Gray]

Larry, I have made a dozen or so large live edge table tops out of beech as I have big beech on my place here also. In our forest beech is a climax species.

Beech has a higher annual shrinkage than maple to you have to allow for movement but my customers love it!

[Jim Dwight]

I have also used beech for sides and backs of drawers. It worked about like maple and also resembles it. It is a nice secondary wood and could be used for most projects calling for maple.

[Jon Endres]

I used beech for a shelf above my kitchen countertop. I found it very easy to work and stable. Beech is also considered an ideal wood for kitchen goods (butcher blocks, cutting boards, bowls, utensils etc.) because it has no odor or taste. Plus it is tight-grained like maple. I have a reasonable stash of 4/4 and 5/4 beech wood and will be adding to it soon as I have a couple large (24"+) beech trees to mill. I would use it as a substitute for hard maple or birch any day.

[Prashun Patel]

I too have a lot of American beech on my property. In fact, I did have one milled for lumber 4 years ago. I have been using it for projects the past year or two. Here's my learning:

1) It is most similar to maple both in hardness and friendliness to hand tools.
2) It is prettiest in quartersawn orientation.
3) It dried reasonably well. I had heard horror stories of twist and splits, but it was my experience that most boards ended up pretty straight and reasonably flat.
4) (I hope i have this right): The sap wood is white, and the heartwood is a reddish/amber. This contrast poses some design constraints. Also, the sap portion is prone to spalting and staining that can run fairly deep. You may end up with grey portions of the board that would require artificial coloring to be aesthetically pleasing.
5) It is prettiest and most stable as quartersawn.

If I were to do it all again, I would mill the boards into 5/4 quartersawn and 8/4 quartersawn boards. I would let it dry under good cover (sealed ends) and check it for stain during the first few months. It will make wonderful case material.

[Curt Harms]

I frequently use English Beech; a near rerlative of American Beech I think.

I find it has mainly straight grain, is a tough and hard timber. Needs to be dried down to 8% or maybe a bit less. Bland colour, no outrageous grain.

Quater sawn Beech used for handplanes, in the UK many secondary furniture parts are/were made from it. If not thoroughly dried then you will get some movement from planks.

I don't find much movement when cutting to size but I do leave a day or two after cutting to see what will happen to it.

Plank it up, give a couple years to air dry and then get a local kiln to finalise the drying and you will not be sorry.

Al


From what I've read, European Beech is a bit more stable than American Beech. I got the impression that American Beech was not really suitable for wooden planes but I could be wrong on that.