Yellow Birch

Scientific name:
Betula alleghaniensis

Other names:
Canadian silky wood
Quebec birch
Silver birch
Swamp birch
Witch hazel

Birch has been providing important forest products for North American inhabitants for many centuries. Certainly the bark of paper birch used for canoes is one use that comes to mind. Seeds are consumed by songbirds including the common redpoll, pine siskin and chickadees. Ruffed grouse feed on seeds, catkins, and buds. The yellow-bellied sapsucker uses yellow birch as a summer food source.

Weight:
About 43 pounds per cubic foot at 7 percent MC.

Use:
The manufacture of furniture, boxes, baskets, crates, wooden ware, cooperage, interior finish, and doors. Birch veneer goes into plywood used for flush doors, furniture, paneling, radio and television cabinets, aircraft, and other specialty uses.

General characteristic:
Yellow birch has white sapwood and light reddish-brown heartwood. In high-quality logs, the sapwood is usually wide and white. The heartwood is a reddish color. Currently, the sapwood is generally preferred, but markets exist for the red heartwood as well. White sapwood stains and discolors easily during warm weather.

Working properties:
Yellow birch and sweet birch are moderately difficult to glue and require flat, true surfaces that have been recently prepared. Pressures must not be too low. Yellow and sweet birch machine quite well with sharp tools.

Drying and shrinkage:
All the birches dry very easily. Slow drying can result in some brown stain and sticker stain development, especially with paper birch. Likewise, initial temperatures over 120 F will cause some darkening. There is only a little risk of surface checking. Warping in lower grades is a risk. Shrinkage in drying is 5 percent.

Durability:
Rated as slightly or nonresistant to heartwood decay. Spalded wood can occur; It has very good bending properties, with good crushing strength and shock resistance.

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