Hardwood not hard, softwood not soft! (necessarily)

Well you learn something everyday and I sure learned something interesting awhile ago. Seems that the terms hardwood and softwood have nothing to do with the "hardness" of the wood!

From the link below...

"The terms softwood and hardwood are used to reference the taxonomical division that separates a species and have little to do with the actual hardness of the wood."

"Hardwood trees have broad leaves and are deciduous - they lose their leaves at the end of the growing season. Hardwoods are angiosperms - using flowers to pollinate for seed reproduction. Oaks, maples, birches and fruit trees are examples of hardwood trees."

"Softwood trees are conifers (evergreens), have needles or scale-like foliage and are not deciduous. Softwoods are gymnosperms, meaning they do not have flowers and use cones for seed reproduction. Examples of softwoods include pines, spruces, firs and hemlocks."

Wood Identification for Hardwood and Softwood Species...

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Reply to
Bill
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Commercially available softwood may be mostly conifers, but there are plenty of softwoods that are not conifers. Take the magnolia for example. It's so soft that you couldn't build ANYthing with it. And hardwoods are definitely harder than softwoods. Just cut any hardwood with a handsaw and you'll see it takes longer than cutting any softwood. The truth I have discovered is that softwoods grow faster and less dense and hardwoods grow slower and denser, and thus the hardness and softness.

-BAM

Reply to
Em

Magnolia is a hardwood. I think you missed the point of the post.

Reply to
Toller

Well, there are evergreen angisperms, azalea, rhododendron, holly, are they hard or soft wood? And there are deciduous gymnosperms, larch? are they hard or soft wood? I'm not sure the Univ of Tenn is the defining authority here.

Reply to
Chas Hurst

BAM please reread the OP.

WRONG. Balsa is classified as a hardwood and is very soft, easy to cut and light.

WRONG. Balsa is classified as a hardwood. In 6 to 10 years it can grow up to 90 feet tall and 45 inches in diameter.

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Reply to
MikeP

OK, now I'm REALLY learning something today! This is getting interesting...

Reply to
Bill

Better study up on just what a hardwood and softwood are Em. There are plenty of softwoods that are harder than hardwoods and vice versa. Take Southern Yellow Pine for instance....softwood but is pretty darned hard. Likewise, balsa wood is a hardwood....hmmm, that's pretty easy to cut actually. The distinction has nothing to do with the wood's actual hardness but as the OP quoted, with the way the tree grows (conifer, deciduous, etc...). Cheers, cc

Reply to
James "Cubby" Culbertson

Better study up on just what a hardwood and softwood are Em. There are plenty of softwoods that are harder than hardwoods and vice versa. Take Southern Yellow Pine for instance....softwood but is pretty darned hard. Likewise, balsa wood is a hardwood....hmmm, that's pretty easy to cut actually. The distinction has nothing to do with the wood's actual hardness but as the OP quoted, with the way the tree grows (conifer, deciduous, etc...). Cheers, cc

Reply to
James "Cubby" Culbertson

Live oak, some call them "evergreens" although they don't resemble any conifer, drop their leaves not at the end of the growing season, but, at the beginning of spring. Leaves are soon replaced in less than a week. If one is not paying attention, one might think they never lose their leaves. Just an addendum to the defintion provided by the original post. They're hardwood if anyone is perplexed.

Reply to
Jim

-snip-

Go to your local borg and pick up a piece of poplar from the hardwood section. Repeat with some yellow pine in the softwoods. You'll find the yellow pine much harder.

Re-read the original post.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

: Go to your local borg and pick up a piece of poplar from the hardwood : section. Repeat with some yellow pine in the softwoods. You'll : find the yellow pine much harder.

: Re-read the original post.

Does anyone know what the hardest softwood is? The softest hardwood?

Reply to
<oprrjg

Name one.

Botanically speaking, magnolia is a hardwood.

Botanically speaking, balsa is a hardwood, and southern yellow pine is a softwood.

Methinks you need to go back and read what the OP wrote. *Much* more carefully this time.

You are confusing "softwood" with "soft wood", and "hardwood" with "hard wood". Not the same at all, as the OP&#39;s post makes abundantly clear.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Bzzt! Thanks for playing. Magnolia is harder than yellow poplar.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Being angiosperms, they&#39;re hardwoods.

Being gymnosperms, they&#39;re softwoods.

Perhaps not, but they agree completely with the source that *is* the defining authority:

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Reply to
Doug Miller

The softest hardwood has gotta be balsa. Dunno about the hardest softwood... longleaf pine is certainly one of the hardest in North America, but I wouldn&#39;t be surprised if there are some tropical gymnosperms that are much harder.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Balsa is a hardwood. Most softwoods are easier to cut tham Balsa.

Bunya Pine is a softwood. It is insanely hard.

As the OP said, it is a taxonomic division (although his source is wrong, many Hardwoods are evergreen)

...Brock.

Reply to
Brock Ulfsen

If you&#39;ve ever had one growing in your yard, you&#39;ll never think they don&#39;t lose their leaves.

Reply to
Elmo

How about Pacific Yew? I have a friend who has his barn poles made from this wood. I was trying to drive nails into this stuff and every single nail bent. This is the wood which got me interested in this topic to begin with.

Pacific Yew...

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Softwoods of North America... (Yew - acrobat page121, document page 117)
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Reply to
Bill

Well, "when I use a word, it means precisely what I want it to mean".

At least one dictionary I found offers a 3rd definition:

[Macquarie] Word: hardwood Pron: [&#39;hadwyd] 1 n. - Bot. any of the generally broadleaved, angiospermous trees with sieve tubes for the conduction of nutrient solutions, most of which have hard wood, as the eucalypts, but some of which have soft wood, as the balsa. 2 - the wood of such a tree. 3 - (in popular use) any wood which is hard.
Reply to
Dan Espen

I thought this was a post about Lyle! Haven&#39;t seen hide nor hair of him in a while. Wonder what he&#39;s up to...

R
Reply to
RicodJour

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