How Many Board Feet In A Cubic Foot

One cubic foot equals 12 board feet — a fixed unit conversion with no species, shape or moisture content involved, since a cubic foot is 1,728 cubic inches and a board foot is defined as exactly 144 cubic inches (a 1" x 12" x 12" piece).

Why this one specifically

This is the conversion factor underneath several other figures on this site rather than a question most woodworkers ask on its own — it's the arithmetic step behind converting a cord of firewood into an equivalent board-foot volume, or sanity-checking a large irregular volume (a log, a stack of rough-cut slabs) against board-foot pricing without measuring each individual piece. Twelve is also a memorable number precisely because it isn't a coincidence: board feet was defined at 1/12 of a cubic foot specifically so common lumber dimensions convert to it with clean arithmetic.

What moves the number

Nothing — this is pure geometry, the one figure on this entire site guaranteed never to change regardless of species, grade, or moisture content, because it's a definition rather than a measurement.

See how many board feet in a cord of wood for this conversion applied to a real stacking volume, the board feet vs linear feet vs square feet explainer for when board feet is the right unit at all, and compute real volumes in the board foot calculator.