Fagus sylvatica
European Beech
The workshop workhorse. Pale, dense, fine-textured hardwood with straight grain, and the wood that bends.
- Cultivé et récolté en Europe.
- Groupe botanique. Les résineux sont des conifères, les feuillus sont des arbres à feuilles larges.
- Famille botanique à laquelle appartient l’essence.
Être informé du prochain arrivageEssence de référence. Aucun plateau en stock pour le moment.
Convient-il à votre projet ?
Idéal pour
- Steam-bent chair frames and curved components
- Workbenches, jigs, and shop fixtures
- Chopping boards, butcher blocks, and kitchen utensils
- Interior joinery and cabinet carcasses
- Turned legs, handles, and tool components
- Children's furniture and toys
Aucun plateau en European Beech dans la sélection actuelle
Essences similaires en stock
Aucun plateau en European Beech pour le moment. Ces essences conviennent aux mêmes projets et sont disponibles.
Soyez informé des arrivages en European Beech
Nous vous envoyons un e-mail lorsque de nouveaux plateaux en European Beech arrivent chez KORENA. Chaque plateau est unique, mieux vaut donc être prévenu rapidement.
Aspect du bois
Son aspect
A clean, light surface in cream to pale pinkish-brown, often with a subtle salmon cast when freshly cut. Grain is straight; texture is fine and even with small, tight rays that show as faint flecks on the quarter. Steamed beech goes warmer and pinker, that familiar Thonet tone. Visually quiet rather than dramatic, which is why it pairs well with bolder species and finishes.
- Cream to pale pinkish-brown when air-dried
- Warmer salmon-pink tone after steaming
- Fine ray fleck on quarter-sawn faces
- Yellows gradually under UV exposure
- Cool, neutral surface under water-based finishes; warmer under oils
- Straight grain, fine even texture.
Travail du bois
Son travail en atelier
Works well across the bench. Saws, planes, and sands cleanly; turns and carves crisply. Glues reliably. Screws need pilot holes, it is dense and can split near edges. Where beech really earns its keep is steam bending: it is the benchmark species for it, and the reason Thonet's bentwood chairs are still made from it more than 150 years on.
Finition
Sands to a smooth, almost glassy surface and takes finishes evenly thanks to the fine texture. Stains apply uniformly without much blotching. Oils and hardwax oils keep the pale tone; water-based finishes hold the cool cast best, while oil-based products will warm it noticeably. Beech yellows over time under UV, worth flagging to clients who want it to stay pale.
Séchage
This is where beech demands respect. Volumetric shrinkage of 17–19% puts it among the more movement-prone European hardwoods, and the gap between radial and tangential shrinkage drives cupping and checking if it is rushed. Slow, controlled kiln schedules and proper acclimatisation in the workshop are non-negotiable. Once stable and used in interior conditions, it behaves, but it will react to swings in humidity, so avoid wide unbroken panels in rooms that are not climate-stable.
De combien va-t-il bouger ?
Le bois gonfle et se rétracte en largeur selon que l’air devient plus humide ou plus sec. Estimez le mouvement saisonnier d’un plateau en European Beech avant de concevoir les fixations.
Mouvement saisonnier attendu
environ 13,4 mm
Important. Utilisez des taquets ou des équerres à trous oblongs, laissez du jeu aux extrémités des alèses et laissez le plateau s’acclimater avant l’assemblage.
Modèle de retrait linéaire : largeur × (retrait ÷ 28 % de point de saturation des fibres) × variation saisonnière d’humidité. Utilise un retrait tangentiel de 11,75 % pour le European Beech. Il s’agit d’une estimation de conception, pas d’une garantie.
Son prix
Sécurité et origine
- Cultivé et récolté en Europe.
- Statut sur la Liste rouge de l’UICN : évaluation mondiale de la conservation de cette essence.
Food-contact safe and a long-standing choice for chopping boards, butcher blocks, spoons, and kitchen utensils. The flip side: beech dust is a documented respiratory sensitiser and is classified by IARC as a Group 1 hardwood dust. Use proper extraction, a fitted P3/FFP3 mask, and keep the shop clean, especially during sanding.
Lire le guide completNotes détaillées sur la figure, l’évolution de la couleur, le travail et la stabilité.
What European Beech actually is#
Fagus sylvatica is the workshop timber of Europe. It is dense at 710 kg per cubic metre, hard at 6,460 N, stiff at 13.0 GPa, fine textured, straight grained, cheap and everywhere.
It is also, by the numbers, the least dimensionally stable wood in this catalogue. Volumetric shrinkage of 17.0 percent ties it with hornbeam for the highest figure here, and its tangential to radial differential of 11.0 against 5.0 percent is the widest of any species listed.
Both facts are true at once, and understanding how they coexist is the whole of working with beech well.
The bending wood#
Fine even texture, straight grain and high stiffness are exactly the properties that make a timber bend rather than break.
Under steam, beech compresses on the inside of a curve without buckling and stretches on the outside without splitting, more reliably than oak or ash. Michael Thonet built an entire furniture industry on that single property in the nineteenth century, and the bentwood chair remains the most produced furniture design in history.
If a project involves a curve, beech is the first thing to reach for in this catalogue.
The movement problem
Questions des acheteurs
Questions fréquentes des acheteurs
Why does beech move so much?
Volumetric shrinkage of 17.0 percent is the joint highest in this catalogue, and tangential shrinkage of 11.0 percent against 5.0 percent radial is a differential of better than two to one. That combination makes beech notoriously unstable in changing humidity. It is why beech is superb for steam bent chair parts and workshop fixtures in a controlled environment, and a poor choice for a wide tabletop in a room with underfloor heating.
Why is beech the classic steam bending wood?
Fine even texture, straight grain and high stiffness at 13.0 GPa let it compress on the inside of a bend without buckling and stretch on the outside without splitting. Thonet built an entire furniture industry on that property. It bends more reliably than oak or ash and holds the curve once dry.
Is beech good for kitchen worktops and chopping boards?
It is rated food safe and its fine closed texture is easier to keep clean than open pored oak, which is why it is traditional for butcher blocks and worktops. The caveat is movement: beech responds strongly to the wet and dry cycling a kitchen imposes. Keep it oiled, avoid standing water, and expect more seasonal change than in maple.
Propriétés mécaniques
Données techniques
Valeurs de référence publiées. Lorsque les sources divergent, la plage est indiquée et la valeur courante sert aux échelles ci-dessus.
| Densité (kg/m³)Masse par mètre cube à environ 12 % d’humidité. Un bois plus lourd est généralement plus dur et plus résistant. | 680–780 kg/m³valeur courante 710 kg/m³ |
|---|---|
| Dureté Janka (N)Force nécessaire pour enfoncer à moitié une bille d’acier dans le bois. Mesure standard de la résistance à l’enfoncement. | 6,000–6,900 Nvaleur courante 6 460 N |
| MOR : module de rupture (MPa)Résistance à la flexion : charge à laquelle une poutre casse. | 100–130 MPa |
| MOE : module d’élasticité (GPa)Rigidité en flexion : fléchissement d’une étagère ou d’un plateau sous une charge. | 13.0–15.0 GPa |
| Retrait radialRetrait perpendiculaire aux cernes, du bois vert au bois anhydre. Les planches sur quartier travaillent dans ce sens. | 5.0–6.5 % |
