How hard is cottonwood and what is it used for?

Cottonwood has a Janka hardness of 430 lbf, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory value at 12% moisture content, making it a soft, lightweight hardwood. Common uses include pulp and paper, plywood core, pallets and crates, matchsticks, OSB, carving stock, and hidden furniture parts.

Can cottonwood be used outdoors?

No. Cottonwood is non-durable and not suited for outdoor use without treatment.

How does cottonwood work on the bench?

It machines easily but the wood is soft and fuzzes up under a dull edge, so sharp tools and careful sanding are needed. It glues, nails, and stains fine, and takes paint as well as anything.

DomesticPopulus deltoides

Cottonwood

The wood the cabinetmaker rarely names but often relies on.

Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) is a domestic hardwood with a Janka hardness of 430 lbf. It has pale grayish brown heartwood, often plain and uniform, and is soft and lightweight with generally straight grain.

Category: Domestic
Janka: 430 lbf
Botanical: Populus deltoides
Shipped at: 6–8% MC

Populus deltoides Eastern Cottonwood · Eastern Cottonwood · Throughout the eastern and central United States and southeastern Canada

Throughout the eastern and central United States and southeastern Canada.

Three to five feet of growth a year is normal. Pale grayish brown heartwood.

Detail of Cottonwood grain — figured wood texture, photographed at Raw Heartwood — A close read on the grain. Detail of this specimen

What you see.

Pale grayish brown heartwood. Sometimes a faint yellow or olive cast. Sapwood is creamy white and not always sharply set off. Plain. Uniform.

Heartwood color detail of Cottonwood (Populus deltoides)

Heartwood, this specimen

How the grain runs.

Generally straight. Slight interlock near knots. Medium to coarse texture, low luster. Diffuse-porous, small even pores.

Closer detail of Cottonwood grain figure

Closer in

On the bench.

Non-durable. Not for outdoor use without treatment. Machines easily but the wood is soft and fuzzes up under a dull edge. Sharp tools, careful sanding. Glues, nails, stains fine. Takes paint as well as anything. None when dry. Pollen is the famous problem. The wood itself rarely bothers anyone. Standard dust precautions.

The numbers, looked at directly.

Janka Hardness

0lbf

1,910 N. Side-hardness — force to embed a half-inch steel ball halfway into the wood.

Average Dried Weight

0lbs/ft³

449 kg/m³. At 12% MC.

Specific Gravity

0.37/ 0.40 at 12% MC

Basic over green volume; second number at 12% moisture content.

Hardness, in context

A side-hardness measurement. Higher number, harder wood.

Shrinkage — radial / tangential / volumetric

3.9%radial

9.2%tangential

13.9%volumetric

On sourcing

Where this wood comes from matters.

Not on CITES. Not on the IUCN Red List. Few hardwoods carry a lighter footprint when you cut them.

What it's for.

Pulp & paper
Plywood core
Pallets & crates
Matchsticks
OSB
Carving stock
Hidden furniture parts

Worth knowing.

Three to five feet of growth a year is normal. That is why hybrid clones run plantation pulp operations worldwide. Quiet workhorse — you rarely name it but you use it. The complaint is fuzz on the sanding.

Sources & references.

Wood Handbook — Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-282) — USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (2021)
Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) — FPL Tech Sheet — USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory
Silvics of North America: Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh. — Eastern Cottonwood — Cooper, David T. (USDA Forest Service) (1990)
Populus deltoides — IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — Stritch, L. (2018)
Populus deltoides — Wikipedia contributors
Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) — The Wood Database

Common questions.

How hard is cottonwood and what is it used for?: Cottonwood has a Janka hardness of 430 lbf, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory value at 12% moisture content, making it a soft, lightweight hardwood. Common uses include pulp and paper, plywood core, pallets and crates, matchsticks, OSB, carving stock, and hidden furniture parts.
Can cottonwood be used outdoors?: No. Cottonwood is non-durable and not suited for outdoor use without treatment.
How does cottonwood work on the bench?: It machines easily but the wood is soft and fuzzes up under a dull edge, so sharp tools and careful sanding are needed. It glues, nails, and stains fine, and takes paint as well as anything.

From the library to your bench