Species data
White Spruce
Picea glauca - a softwood from northern North America. Also sold as canadian spruce, skunk spruce.
Properties at a glance
| Janka hardness | 480 lbf |
| Stiffness (MOE) | 1,315,000 psi |
| Specific gravity | 0.43 |
| Density | 26.8 lb/ft3 (430 kg/m3) |
| Weight per board foot | 2.24 lb |
| Shrinkage, green to oven-dry | 8.2% tangential / 4.7% radial |
| Movement coefficient (CT / CR) | 0.00274 / 0.00130 |
| Indicative price | $3.50 per board foot (estimated) |
Values are at about 12% moisture content. Density is specific gravity times 62.4; a board foot is one twelfth of a cubic foot, so weight per board foot is that density divided by twelve. Anything marked estimated is our own figure, not a measured one.
How White Spruce compares
Measured against the 113 solid woods in this database: it is harder than 15% of them, heavier than 15%, and stiffer than 19%. Soft enough to dent in service - worth knowing before using it for a worktop or a floor.
What that means in the shop
A 4/4 board 8 inches wide and 8 feet long is 5.33 board feet, so in White Spruce it weighs about 11.9 lb. A stack of ten is 119 lb - worth knowing before you load a rack or a car.
Against red oak, the trade's usual yardstick at 1,220 lbf, White Spruce is about 39% as hard and 61% as heavy.
Its shrinkage is 8.2% tangential against 4.7% radial, a ratio of 1.7 to 1. The wider that ratio, the more unevenly a flatsawn board moves across its width as humidity changes, and the more it wants to cup; anything near or above 2 to 1 is worth quartersawing or restraining for panels and wide tops. This one moves comparatively evenly.
Woods of similar hardness
Closest to White Spruce on hardness in this database: Lodgepole Pine (480 lbf), White Fir (480 lbf), Butternut (490 lbf), Incense Cedar (470 lbf). Similar hardness does not mean similar behaviour - check density and movement before substituting one for another.
Working with it
Workability. Easy where knots are absent; glues and finishes well, but staining may blotch
Durability. Ranges from slightly resistant to non-resistant toward decay
Typical uses. construction lumber, millwork, crates, paper pulpwood.
Related calculators
Sources
- The Wood Database - White Spruce
- Dimensional change coefficient table (Hoadley / FPL Wood Handbook), reproduced by Popular Woodworking
MOE, SG (12% MC), Janka and shrinkage from The Wood Database (cites USDA FPL Wood Handbook). CT 0.00274 (flatsawn) and CR 0.00130 (quartersawn) for Spruce, white from the Hoadley / FPL dimensional change coefficient table reproduced by Popular Woodworking. Uses, region, durability and workability summarized from The Wood Database. Price indicative.
These calculators are for planning and estimation. Engineering results (shelf sag, wood movement) use published average material properties; real boards vary by grade, grain, moisture and defects. Verify load-bearing designs with a professional.