Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material

The Wood Handbook was first issued in 1935, and slightly revised in 1939, as an unnumbered publication. Summarizes information on wood as an engineering material. Further revisions in 1955, 1974, and 1987 were published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as Agricultural Handbook No. 72. The 1999 revision was published by the Forest Products Laboratory as General Technical Report FPL-GTR-113 and reprinted for broader distribution by the Forest Products Society. The Centennial Edition, published by the Forest Products Laboratory in 2010 helped celebrate the Forest Products Laboratory's first 100 years of service to the public.

The audience for the Wood Handbook is broad - users of this handbook run the gamut from engineers, architects and homeowners to those who use wood and forest products in their artwork. Consequently, the coverage of each chapter is aimed at providing a general discussion of the topic, with references included for those seeking additional information. Many more scientific and technical publications and reports are available on this website and in Treesearch.

The Wood Handbook is used worldwide on a daily basis. It is consistently the most popular document produced by the Forest Products Laboratory, with more than 2,000 digital downloads of all or parts on a weekly basis. People from the 180 nations worldwide have downloaded all or part of this instructive handbook.

We sincerely thank all current and past contributors, authors, reviewers, and the many collaborators we have worked with as we continue to discover new and exciting aspects of this renewable material and ways to use it in a sustainable, economically sound manner.

In this edition of the Wood Handbook - Wood as an Engineering Material builds upon past editions, particularly the Centennial Edition (2010), with some important additions:

• The introductory chapter has been expanded to describe the role of forest products in the management of forested lands, and it highlights the importance of wood as an environmentally responsible, sustainable material (Chapter 1).
• Current information on the status of several endangered or vulnerable tree species has been added to their descriptions (Chapter 2).
• A discussion of the fundamental chemical constituents of wood ahs been included (Chapter 3).
• Information has been added on cross-laminated timber products (Chapters 12 and 18).
• Important updates on wood preservation practices are included.

The first chapter highlights the importance of forest products in the context of conservation of our natural resources and their role and importance in forest management. Chapter 2 briefly describes many species of wood, domestic and international. Current and historic uses are cited to illustrate the utility of wood.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 present background information on the fundamental structure of wood, basic information on moisture relations and physical properties, and the mechanical properties of wood. Chapter 6 discusses commercial wood products - commercial lumber, round timbers, and ties. Chapter 7 presents background information on stress grades and design properties for these products.

Chapter 8 provides information on fastenings used in wood construction, including nails, spikes, wood screws, and other fastening systems. Commonly used structural analysis equations are presented in Chapter 9. The use of adhesives with wood is presented in Chapter 10. 

Chapter 11 presents background information on various wood-based composite material panel products, glue-laminated timber, structural composite lumber, and wood-nonwood composite materials. The mechanical properties of wood-based composite materials are summarized in Chapter 12. Of note is the addition of descriptive and technical information regarding cross-laminated timber products - a series of products gaining widespread acceptance and use in building construction.

The topics of wood drying and control of moisture content and dimensional changes are presented in Chapter 13.

Biodeterioration and the preservation of wood are discussed in Chapters 14 and 15, both of which were substantially updated. Finishing the wood is discussed in Chapter 16.

Chapter 17 presents an overview of wood use in buildings and bridges. Topics covered include light-frame construction, post-frame and pole buildings, log buildings, heavy timber buildings, and bridges.

Fire safety in wood construction and use is discussed in detail in Chapter 18. This chapter was substantially updated and includes information on fire performance of mass timber products.

A variety of specialty treatments are discussed in Chapter 19. This chapter includes a summary of treatments that can be used to improve performance of wood or alter its properties. 

Information on heat treating and sterilization procedures is presented in Chapter 20. This information is essential to finding uses for wood obtained from trees killed by invasive insect species as they propagate through various regions of the United States.

The Wood Handbook originally focused on construction practices that utilized solid-sawn wood. Since its first printing in 1935, the state-of-the-art in wood construction practices and the range of wood-based products available to the consumer have changed considerably. Excellent printed reference and websites have been developed by various trade associations and wood products manufacturers that document in detail current design information for the ever-changing range of products available. We have made a concerted effort to include the most current references, in addition to many historic ones, to help guide the reader to appropriate sources of information.