---
title: "Green Log Weight: Formula, Species Table and Handling Safety"
description: "Green weight = volume × basic density × (1 + MC%): a Wood Handbook species table, worked examples in kg per log, and the handling rules that keep crews safe."
image: "https://nestingcalc.com/og-default.png"
url: "https://nestingcalc.com/guides/green-log-weight-safety/"
locale: "en"
---

# Green Log Weight: Formula, Species Table and Handling Safety

Green weight = volume × basic density × (1 + MC%): a Wood Handbook species table, worked examples in kg per log, and the handling rules that keep crews safe.

## The formula

Green (freshly felled) weight is **W = V × Gb × (1 + MC/100)**: volume V, basic density Gb (oven-dry mass per green volume, kg/m³) and green moisture content MC. A 0.5 m³ spruce log with Gb 355 kg/m³ at 80% MC weighs 355 × 0.5 × 1.8 ≈ **320 kg** — one log, a third of a tonne, mostly water.

## Basic density, not air-dry density

Gb is oven-dry mass divided by green (swollen) volume — exactly the state you lift in the forest. Using an air-dry density table (12% MC) together with a green MC of 80% underestimates weight badly, because it multiplies by 1.12 instead of 1.8: the same spruce log would come out at 198 kg instead of 320 kg. Match the density basis to the moisture basis.

## Species table (green kg per m³)

From Wood Handbook Gb values plus typical green MC:

| Species | Gb (kg/m³) | Green MC % | Green kg/m³ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Spruce (SPF) | 355 | 80 | ≈ 640 |
| Kesiya pine | 420 | 71 | ≈ 720 |
| Rubberwood | 500 | 75 | ≈ 875 |
| Acacia mangium | 560 | 73 | ≈ 970 |
| Red oak | 560 | 75 | ≈ 980 |
| Melaleuca | 680 | 70 | ≈ 1,156 |

## Why green weight is a safety number

The classic crushing accidents involve rolling logs and winch lines: never stand in the bight of a choker or cable, and treat any log on a slope as ready to move. Payload math belongs to the same conversation — a 10 t trailer carries ≈ 15.6 m³ of green spruce but only ≈ 10.2 m³ of green acacia, and truck decks, loading ramps and machine lift charts all assume the weight was estimated before the lift, not after.

## Water is most of the difference

Green MC runs 45–80% in the species above. Drying to 18% MC cuts spruce from ≈ 640 to ≈ 420 kg/m³ — roughly a third of the green weight — which is why kiln-dried stock is cheaper to ship per solid m³ and why green logs stress both trailers and wrists. The moisture side of the calculation lives in [Moisture content](https://nestingcalc.com/moisture-content-calculator/).

## Measure, then decide

[Green log weight](https://nestingcalc.com/log-weight-calculator/) turns log dimensions and species into green weight per piece and per load using the same Gb table, so payload and crane decisions start from numbers instead of habit. Volume inputs can come from [Hoppus Formula Explained: Quarter-Girth Log Measurement](https://nestingcalc.com/guides/hoppus-formula-explained/) (Hoppus) or [JAS Log Scaling: The Japanese Agricultural Standard Explained](https://nestingcalc.com/guides/jas-log-grading-standard/) (JAS) scaling.

[Green log weight](https://nestingcalc.com/log-weight-calculator/) [Open the linear cutting calculator](https://nestingcalc.com/linear-cutting-calculator/)

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