Cypress (Bald)

Family

Wood

Category

wood

Species

Taxodium distichum

Density

0.48 g/cm³ · 480 kg/m³

Species measured

Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum)

Specific gravity

0.46

Janka side hardness

510 lbf · 2,269 N

Modulus of rupture

10,600 psi · 73.1 MPa

Modulus of elasticity

1.44 ×10⁶ psi · 9.93 GPa

Baldcypress is not in the shrinkage table, so no shrinkage figures are given for it.

Source: USDA Forest Service, Wood Handbook — Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-190, 2010), Table 5–3b, for clear straight-grained specimens at 12% moisture content. The grey figures are converted at 1 lbf = 4.448 N, 1 psi = 6.895 kPa and 1 GPa = 145,038 psi; the inch-pound numbers are the published ones. Specific gravity is oven-dry mass over volume at 12% moisture content, so it sits about 12% below the working density at the top of this page (0.46 × 1.12 ≈ 0.52 g/cm³). The two come from different sampling programmes, so a few species differ by more than that.

Origin

Southeastern United States

Appearance

Light yellow-brown to greyish, straight grain, fine texture

Working

Works easily and is naturally rot resistant, which is why it turns up in boats and outdoor joinery.

Unlike the USDA figures above, these lines are not measurements: they carry no units and no single source. They describe how the timber is generally found to behave rather than what it is guaranteed to do — read them as the consensus of the trade, not as a specification.

• Density is for air-dried stock at about 12% moisture content
• Old-growth material is more durable than plantation stock

Dressed sizes are the same for every species — a 2x4 is 1-1/2 x 3-1/2 in in oak as much as in spruce. What changes is the weight, and that is derived here from cypress (bald)'s density of 0.48 g/cm³.

Which tools work a material is a property of the family (Wood), not of the individual species — so this list is the same on every wood page, and changes when the tool data changes rather than when this paragraph does.