Hemlock (Western)

Family

Wood

Category

wood

Species

Tsuga heterophylla

Density

0.47 g/cm³ · 470 kg/m³

Species measured

Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)

Specific gravity

0.45

Janka side hardness

540 lbf · 2,402 N

Modulus of rupture

11,300 psi · 77.9 MPa

Modulus of elasticity

1.63 ×10⁶ psi · 11.24 GPa

Shrinkage, green to oven-dry

4.2% radial · 7.8% tangential · 12.4% volumetric

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 (0.45 × 1.12 ≈ 0.50 g/cm³). The two come from different sampling programmes, so a few species differ by more than that.

Origin

Western North America

Appearance

Pale brown with a faint purple cast; coarse texture

Working

Works reasonably well and holds nails, but it has no natural decay resistance, so it belongs indoors or clear of the ground.

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
• Not suitable for ground contact or exposed outdoor use

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 hemlock (western)'s density of 0.47 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.