A Chart of the Density of Wood Species

I have included several familiar woods that probably will never be used in banjo making for the sake of comparison. I have also included domestic and exotic woods that could be or have been used for banjo making. The species in bold are ones I have used for making rims.

The following is a wood density chart compiled from several different sources. In the metric system "kg/cu.m" is kilograms per cubic meter. A cubic meter of water is 1,000 kg. Therefore woods that are less than 1,000 kg/cu.m will float whereas over 1,000 kg/cu.m wood will sink.

Mark Hickler