Physical Properties of Paulownia

The wood of Paulownia is soft, lightweight, ring porous straight grained, and mostly knot free wood with a satiny luster. Average specific gravity of the wood is reported as 0.35 g cm3. Paulownia timber is easily air-dried without serious drying defects. It has a high strength-to-weight ratio, a low shrinkage coefficient, and does not easily warp or crack. Machining and finishing properties of the wood are excellent. In China and some of the other Asian countries, Paulownia wood is used for a variety of applications such as furniture, construction, musical instrument, shipbuilding, aircraft, packing boxes, coffins, paper, plywood, cabinetmaking, and molding (Paulownia wood is marketed primarily for specialty solid wood products, oriented strand board, veneer, and for pulp to produce fine paper