Beech - Fagus sylvatica
Uses:
Widely used in furniture making, e.g., for making
carcasses of chairs and couches; flooring, turning and for making
domestic utensils, such as bread and cheeseboards.
Availability of Scottish Beech:
Scottish beech is widely available, and most is of
reasonable quality. It generally grows well in Scotland, particularly
in the lowlands. Characterful spalted beech is also available.
Strength & Structure
Grain: Generally straight.
 Strength: Beech is one of the strongest of homegrown timber, with medium bending strength, crushing strength and shock resistance.
Density: At 12% moisture content, the density of beech is 720kg/m3 (around the same as homegrown oak).
Structure: Obvious features of the
timber include distinct growth rings and broad rays, which give beech
its distinctive flecking. The rings are demarcated by a zone of fibres;
pores are diffuse and parenchyma very small.
Durability & Drying: Perishable,
susceptible to furniture beetle and occasionally pin-hole borers, but
immune to lyctus infestation. Shrinks considerably in drying, but
otherwise dries fairly well, with a tendency to check and split.
Colour and Figure: Beech is a pale
creamy brown colour, with distinctive dark flecks; annual rings
although visible do not result in a distinctive figure. In general,
beech has a uniform appearance, with sapwood that can’t be
distinguished from heartwood. Steamed beech is a pale pink colour.
Working Properties: The working
properties of beech vary according to where it’s grown. Generally, it’s
a fairly dense timber, with corresponding moderate blunting effect.
Beech glues well and also has excellent bending properties, which go a
long way in explaining its popularity in chair manufacture. Machining
and sawing generally satisfactory, with some tendency to burn on cross
cutting and drilling.
Beech - The Tree
Looks & Leaves: Beech trees are
broad crowned, deciduous, and can grow up to 40m tall, although they
have shallow roots. Bark is thin smooth and grey. The leaves are
elliptical and untoothed (smooth edged), 4-9cm long, fringed with silky
hairs. When they first come out, they are a light, bright green, which
darkens through the summer,
turning nut brown in autumn. Winter buds
are long and slender. Beech flowers in May and sheds its nuts in
October. Seeds germinate in spring, with seed leaves a distinctive
round shape. Young beech trees retain their dead leaves through the
winter – leaves are also retained in a small conical zone on older
trees, particularly obvious in old hedges.
Habitat: Beech will not grow on
heavy clay or wet soils; the tree likes chalk and lime stone areas but
will grow in open, well-drained soils of low pH. Its roots travel far,
but tend not to reach any real depth. Beech seeds will germinate and
grow under the shade of their parent, unlike any other native tree.
Ecological Value: To Follow.
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