Veneer Beech unsteamed brown 0.56 mm

Heartwood is obtained from the so-called heartwood of the beech. Most of the beech trees used for this purpose are more than 80 years old. The red heartwood is irregular in its colour intensity and shape, giving the wood a spirited character. This character is underlined by the numerous medullary rays, which appear tangentially as reddish lines several millimetres high and radially as equally high, flat mirrors.

Trade names and other names

Abbreviation DIN EN 13556: PGXX
 Botanical name: Fagus sylvatica
 German: Buche natur mit Kern, Kernbuche, Rotbuche, Gemeine Buche
 English: Unsteamed hearted Beech, Unsteamed Beech redheart
 French: Hêtre naturel à coeur rouge
 Italian: Faggio crudo cuore rosso, Faggio crudo con anima
 Spanish: Haya, Haya común
 Portuguese: Faia-europeia
 Dutch: Beuken

Technical wood properties

Weight fresh/green: 820 - 1270 kg/m³
Density air dry (12-15% u): 540 - 910 kg/m³
Tensile strength: 7.0 - 10.7 N/mm²
Compressive strength: 41 - 99 N/mm²
Flexural strength: 74 - 210 N/mm²
Shear strength: 6.5 - 19.0 N/mm²
Hardness according to Brinell BII: 72 N/mm²
Hardness according to Brinell: 34 N/mm²
Differential shrinkage (radial): 0.20%
 Differential shrinkage (tangential): 0.40%
 Natural durability (DIN-EN 350-2): 5, not durable

Values of the technical properties of a wood species refer to a wood moisture content of u ≅12% to 15%. Data without guarantee.

Occurrence

European beech is widespread over almost all of Europe with the exception of southern Greece and Spain. The distribution area extends primarily between the 40th and 60th degrees in the northern latitude with its peripheral areas.

Trunk and bark

European beech, a slow-growing tree, growing in closed stands and forests, reaching heights of up to about 40m and diameters of up to 150 cm. The trunk is fully woody, very well and straight grown, free of knots up to 15m. The bark of the copper beech is free of bast fibres, smooth, grey-green. Only exceptionally do longitudinal and transverse cracks appear in the lower part of the trunk. Cattle tubercles or Chinese whiskers are pea- to walnut-sized, woody, dark, upwardly curved lines or balls in the bark, which are due to abnormal development of dormant eyes or branches.

Characteristics and wood colour

Scattered pores, pores small. Medullary rays of beech are broad and distinct, forming the typical light brown mirrors in radial section. The sapwood and heartwood are not different. The wood of the beech is generally without any special colouring. The wood of the beech is reddish-white to light reddish. The heartwood is generally without any special colouring in red beech. The reddish-brown heart, the so-called "false heart", is a disease symptom of the European Beech.

Replacement woods

Thanks to its homogeneous structure and easy processing, Beech can be easily adapted in colour to all similar structured wood species.

Literature
-Wood Atlas | 6th edition in 2006 | Rudi Wagenführ
-Wood Science Volumes 1-3 | 1982 | Hans Heinrich Bosshard
-Properties and core sizes of wood species | 1989 | Jürgen Sell / Lignum Switzerland