Common Softwoods And Hardwoods

Common hardwoods and softwoods for furniture.

Common softwoods and hardwoods.

For example balsa wood is known as one of the softest and least dense types of wood yet it is. Softwood is usually wood from gymnosperm trees such as pines and spruces softwoods are not necessarily softer than hardwoods. The most common type of cedar is the western red variety. Do note a wood s heartwood is harder than its sapwood.

Following is a list of common softwood varieties and their characteristics. Also wood names can be misleading. Most common hardwoods unlike the conifers or softwood firs spruce and pines hardwood trees have evolved into a broad array of common species. Hardwoods are also stronger and more durable due to their more condensed and complex structure.

The wood from hardwood trees tends to be harder because the trees grow at a slower rate giving the wood its greater density. Western red cedar as its name implies has a reddish color to it. Some common types of hardwoods include oak teak iroko and meranti. Ncsu inside wood project reproduction of the american woods.

However this is not what qualifies a piece of wood as either soft or hard. Exhibited by actual specimens and with copious explanatory text by romeyn b. Hardwoods are sourced from broad leaved trees. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness the range of density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods.

For example swietena mahagony south american mahogany and african mahogany are all marketed as mahogany but their. Pine lumber since pine is one of the most abundant sources of lumber it may not be as expensive as other types of lumber and is mostly used in construction and furniture. Hough us forest products laboratory characteristics and availability of commercially important wood from the wood handbook pdf 916k. Classifying wood as either a hardwood or softwood comes down to its physical structure and makeup and so it is overly simple to think of hardwoods as being hard and durable compared to soft and workable softwoods.

To help you in choosing the right wood for your construction project here are three of the most common types of softwood lumber and what they are used for. Typically they grow slower and are thicker than softwoods. This happens to be generally true but there are exceptions such as in the cases of wood from yew trees a softwood that is relatively hard and wood from balsa trees a.