Pyrus communis

European Pear

Master-grade carving and cabinet wood with a fine even texture. Slab-size pieces are rare and prized when they appear.

Être informé du prochain arrivageEssence de référence. Aucun plateau en stock pour le moment.

Convient-il à votre projet ?

Idéal pour

Heirloom carving and sculpture
Fine cabinetry and case pieces
Marquetry and inlay
Jewellery boxes and instrument cases
Small statement tables and side tables
Turned bowls and treen

Aucun plateau en European Pear dans la sélection actuelle

Essences similaires en stock

Aucun plateau en European Pear pour le moment. Ces essences conviennent aux mêmes projets et sont disponibles.

Soyez informé des arrivages en European Pear

Nous vous envoyons un e-mail lorsque de nouveaux plateaux en European Pear arrivent chez KORENA. Chaque plateau est unique, mieux vaut donc être prévenu rapidement.

Aspect du bois

Son aspect

Pale pinkish-tan to warm salmon, deepening to a soft russet with age and light. Texture is dense, even, and almost poreless under the hand. Figure is quiet, gentle ribbon and the occasional fine fleck, which is exactly why carvers and marquetry workers prize it. The grain doesn't fight you, and detail holds crisply.

Pale pinkish-tan when fresh off the saw
Warm salmon to soft russet with age
Steamed pear takes a uniform pinkish hue
Stains evenly to deep black for ebonised work
Subtle ribbon figure; rarely dramatic
Mild UV warming, no harsh colour shift
Very fine even texture; subtle figure.

Travail du bois

Son travail en atelier

Carves, turns, and planes superbly, this is a benchmark wood for fine work. Cuts cleanly across the grain without tearing, holds knife-edge detail, and turns to crisp profiles. Sands to a near-polished surface straight off the tool. Glues and screws well. Steam bending is moderate. The low stiffness helps it bend, but it can compress unevenly, so test on offcuts.

Finition

Sands to a glass-smooth surface, one of the cleanest finishes you can pull off any European hardwood. Takes oil, wax, and shellac evenly with no blotching. Steaming produces the uniform pinkish tone historically used to imitate ebony when stained black (the piano-key trick). For natural finishes, hard-wax oil holds the warm tone; lacquer can flatten it. Expect mild warming in UV.

Séchage

Honest tradeoff: tangential shrinkage is high (10.5–12%) against modest radial movement, so drying rate matters. Pear that's rushed will check, cup, and case-harden. Air-dry slowly under weight, then finish in a kiln on a gentle schedule. Once stable, it sits well indoors. Quartersawn or rift-sawn stock is the safer cut for wide panels.

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 Pear avant de concevoir les fixations.

Largeur du plateau800 mm

Débit

Lieu d’utilisation

Mouvement saisonnier attendu

environ 12,9 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 11,25 % pour le European Pear. Il s’agit d’une estimation de conception, pas d’une garantie.

Son prix

Sécurité et origine

Food-contact safe, pear has a long tradition as kitchen utensil and treen wood. Not a commonly reported dust sensitiser. Standard shop dust extraction is enough.

Lire le guide completNotes détaillées sur la figure, l’évolution de la couleur, le travail et la stabilité.

What European Pear actually is#

Pyrus communis is the fine detail wood of Europe. Its texture is exceptionally close, even and dense, with essentially no visible grain direction, and at 7,420 N Janka it is one of the hardest species in this catalogue.

That pairing is unusual. Most woods that hold fine detail are soft, like lime. Most woods that are hard have pronounced grain that fights the tool, like oak. Pear is both hard and directionless, so carved detail is crisp and then survives being handled.

It is the traditional wood for woodcut printing blocks, recorders and wind instrument parts, drawing instruments, rulers, set squares and fine inlay, and all of those uses depend on the same property.

The orchard problem#

Pear is a fruit tree. It is grown for pears, and it reaches the timber market when an orchard tree comes to the end of its productive life.

The consequences are structural. Trunks are short and often irregular. Diameters are modest. Clean wide boards are genuinely scarce, and slab sized material is uncommon enough that finding it is the main constraint rather than affording it.

Expect narrow widths, short lengths, and a good deal of character.

Steamed and unsteamed

Questions des acheteurs

Questions fréquentes des acheteurs

Why is pear so highly regarded for carving and instruments?

Its texture is exceptionally fine, even and dense, with essentially no visible grain direction, so it cuts equally well in any direction and holds very crisp detail. At 7,420 N Janka it is also hard, which means carved detail survives handling. That combination of fine texture and hardness is rare and is why pear has been the traditional wood for woodcuts, recorders, rulers and instrument parts.

What is steamed pear?

Pear that has been steamed during drying, which turns the pale pinkish wood a warm rose brown and evens the colour. It is the standard European commercial treatment and the colour most people associate with the species. Unsteamed pear is paler and more variable. The change is permanent.

Why are pear boards so small?

It is an orchard tree, grown for fruit and felled at the end of its productive life rather than for timber. Trunks are short, often irregular, and rarely large. Wide clean pear is genuinely scarce and priced accordingly, and slab sized material is uncommon.

How much does it move?

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)	650–740 kg/m³valeur courante 700 kg/m³
Dureté Janka (N)	6,800–7,800 Nvaleur courante 7 420 N
MOR : module de rupture (MPa)	75–90 MPa
MOE : module d’élasticité (GPa)	7.0–8.5 GPa
Retrait radial	4.0–5.0 %

Drawing instruments and tool handles

Ebonised detail work (piano-key tradition)

Native across Europe, from orchards and hedgerows. Most pear comes in small sections from old orchard trees, so a true slab is uncommon stock, usually a long-lived garden or estate tree that grew large enough to mill.

IUCN Least Concern, no CITES listing. Native European species, often sourced from orchard clearances and estate trees rather than dedicated forestry, which means supply is opportunistic and slabs are scarce. Decay class 5, perishable, so this is strictly interior wood.

Most European commercial pear is steamed during drying.

Steaming turns the pale pinkish natural colour to a warm rose brown and evens out variation. This is the colour most people picture when they think of pear, and it is the standard for instrument and cabinet work.

Unsteamed pear is paler, closer to a pinkish cream, and more variable between boards. Both are the same species and the difference is permanent, so decide at the outset and buy accordingly.

The movement problem#

This is the one number that spoils an otherwise excellent wood.

Tangential shrinkage of 10.5 percent against radial at 4.0 percent is among the widest differentials in this catalogue, wider than oak, wider than ash. Volumetric shrinkage of 11.5 percent is only moderate, so the total movement is unremarkable, but the distortion is severe because the two axes are so far apart.

Flatsawn pear cups hard. Quartersawn stock is markedly better behaved and is worth seeking out for anything that must stay flat.

Given the small sizes the species comes in, most pear ends up in components small enough that this matters less than it would in a wide top. If you do have a pear slab wide enough for a tabletop, that ratio is the thing to design around.

Pear works beautifully and it works hard. At 7,420 N it blunts tooling steadily and asks for power, but the fine texture means it cuts cleanly rather than tearing.

It carves exceptionally, turns exceptionally, and takes a polished surface directly from the tool with very little abrasive work. It glues reliably and holds fine screws with pilot holes.

It also bends reasonably well and takes a very crisp moulded profile, which is why it appears in period furniture as mouldings and edge details.

The fine dense surface takes finish evenly and needs no grain filling. Steamed pear under a clear oil is a warm rose brown that many makers consider among the most attractive surfaces in European furniture.

It stains poorly and rarely needs to. Pear is often used precisely because its own colour is wanted.

It is also the traditional substrate for ebonising, taking black stain evenly because there is no open grain to break up the surface, which is how pear was used as a substitute for ebony in period work.

Where European Pear is the right answer#

Carving and fine detail work, musical instrument parts, drawing and measuring instruments, inlay and marquetry, small cabinetry, turned work, and mouldings. Also ebonised work.

It is the wrong answer for anything large, anything outdoors at decay class 5, and anything where a wide flatsawn surface must stay flat.

Not CITES listed and assessed as Least Concern. The tree is common across Europe but timber supply is limited by the orchard felling pattern rather than by scarcity of trees. Provenance chains are short and non-standardised, and KORENA records the yard and region on every listing.

Tangential shrinkage of 10.5 percent against radial at 4.0 percent is a very wide differential, among the widest in this catalogue, so flatsawn pear cups strongly. Volumetric shrinkage of 11.5 percent is only moderate, so the total movement is not extreme but the distortion is. Quartersawn stock is markedly better behaved.

Can pear be used outdoors?

No. It is rated decay class 5, perishable, despite being hard and dense. Hardness and durability are unrelated. Pear is an interior wood for fine work, and it is too scarce and valuable to put outside.

Retrait volumique	11.5–13.5 %

Durabilité naturelle (EN 350)	Class 5 — Perishable

Références

The Wood Database(consultée le 2026-05-09)
USDA FPL Wood Handbook FPL-GTR-190 (2010)(consultée le 2026-05-09)
Meier, E. — WOOD! Identifying and Using Hundreds of Woods Worldwide (2015)(consultée le 2026-05-09)

En bref

DuretéTrès dur

Dureté Janka : 7 420 N

49 % plus dur que le chêne européen

PoidsLourd

700 kg/m³

StabilitéMoyen

12,5 % de retrait volumique

TravailTrès facile

4,6 / 5 de moyenne à l’atelier

Usage extérieurIntérieur uniquement

EN 350 classe 5

Aucune référence de marché n’est encore disponible pour le European Pear. Chaque plateau KORENA est tarifé individuellement par son dépôt partenaire.

Émousse les tranchants

Bois très dur et dense. Gardez les outils bien affûtés et percez un avant-trou pour chaque vis.

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