European Beech is a deciduous shade tree from Europe. The heartwood and sapwood are cream to pale pink in colour with a straight grain and fine, even texture. It is common practice to steam the timber, which turns it to a darker pink-red colour. Grain is straight, with fine to medium uniform texture and moderate natural lustre. It has no characteristic odour. Slicing the veneer usually requires the wood to be prepared with steam, which gives the wood a more golden tone. Flatsawn surfaces tend to be very plain, while quarter-sawn surfaces exhibit a silvery fleck pattern.

Beech is used extensively for any kind of interior application. It dresses very smooth, sands to a
high polish and takes particularly any type of finish well. Beech is a hard, strong and heavy close-grained hardwood. Its fine texture makes it an ideal wood for domestic flooring. Beech is especially wear resistant, making it appropriate for heavy-duty economical flooring and staircase construction as well. Its excellent shaping and turning properties make it an excellent wood for brushes and handles, stair balusters and railings and other turned and shaped woodenware. 

Beech is a good toy wood because of its non-toxic qualities and its lack of any tendency to splinter on corners of square toys. Its unique spine, a combination of strength, stiffness and hardness adapts to the manufacture of slim, delicate turnings with high-strength requirements, such as veneers, chairs, upholstery frames and dowels. 

Beech is not difficult to machine although it is very strong and hard and quite heavy. It is one of the few hardwoods that is available in good quantity, and up to now, has suffered more from lack of knowledge of its excellent physical properties and possible uses than from any deficiency. It has long been forced to masquerade in various wood product assemblies under the identity of other hardwoods due to a lack of knowledge of Beech as an all-purpose hardwood. It is considered to be among the best-known and most useful commercial timber in the world and is always in demand. European beech is available in various lengths, wide boards and in the form of veneers. European Beech is moderately priced.

Details
  • Category
    Timber, Wall Panels & Cladding , Timber Flooring
Specifications

Botanical Name
Fagus sylvatica

Origin
Central Europe

Features

Common Uses<
Furniture, Cabinet making, Staircase construction, Mouldings, Flooring, Chairs, Decorative veneer, Desks, Baseboards, Joinery, Musical instruments, Plywood, Tool handles, Toys, Rotary Veneer, Workbenches, Upholstery frames.

Working Properties
Beech offers medium resistance to hand and power tools and has a moderate blunting effect. Pre-boring is necessary for nailing, it glues easily, stains well and takes an excellent finish.

Mechanical Properties
The steam bending properties are extremely good, even tolerant of knots and irregular grains. It has medium stiffness, high crushing strength and medium resistance to shock loads.

Overview

Treatability
Copper Beech heart and sapwood are easy to treat and can be impregnated without difficulty in pressure processes.

Working Qualities
Beech wood is easy and clean to work with. Steamed beech eases barking or slicing (for manufacturing veneers). Steaming also reduces the Beech’s tendency to warp and crack and enables the wood to be shaped and flexed easily.

Basic Info

Durability In GroundPerishable/Non Durable
Durability Above Ground Moderately Durable
Turning (1-10) 9
Dimension Stability (1-10)5
Cross Cutting (1-10)6
Shaping & Sanding (1-10)8
Planing & Moulding (1-10)

Density Green 1000 kg/m3 

Shrinkage Radial 5 %
Shrinkage Tangental 10 % 

Stability Green Not Stable

Mechanical Properties

Janka Hardness 6.46 kN
Modulus of Rupture 110.1 MPa
Modulus of Elasticity 14.31 GPa
Max Crush Strength 57.0 MPa
Shear Strength Parallel to Grain 10 MPa

ITI Timspec is a wholesaler supplier for the Trade. For all non-trade pricing enquiries, please contact your preferred Timber supply Merchant.
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About the
Seller

Timspec was established in 1990 as a wholesaler of specialty timber and was wholly New Zealand owned. In March 2019 Timspec was acquired by ITI Australia and became ITI Timspec LTD.  

Today we import, export, and wholesale a huge range of timber to builders, joiners, home owners, floor layers, landscape builders and furniture manufacturers. We pride ourselves on being environmentally responsible and strive to source the most sustainable timber options available. Timber stocked includes species from North America, South America, Europe, Africa, South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand's exotic as well as indigenous species. 

The ITI Timspec team are extremely knowledgeable about the various types of timber, treatments and uses available and are happy to help you in choosing the right product for your project.