Common Softwoods And Hardwoods

Western red cedar as its name implies has a reddish color to it.

Common softwoods and hardwoods.

Wood is generally categorized as either softwood or hardwood and it is a common misconception that softwood is soft and workable while hardwood is hard and durable. 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. 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. Common hardwoods and softwoods for furniture.

Following is a list of common softwood varieties and their characteristics. This type of wood is relatively soft 1 on a scale of 1 to 4 has a straight grain and has a slightly aromatic smell. Hardwoods are sourced from broad leaved trees. However this is not what qualifies a piece of wood as either soft or hard.

Some common types of hardwoods include oak teak iroko and meranti. Ncsu inside wood project reproduction of the american woods. Also wood names can be misleading. The wood from hardwood trees tends to be harder because the trees grow at a slower rate giving the wood its greater density.

Exhibited by actual specimens and with copious explanatory text by romeyn b. 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. Here is a list of common hardwoods and softwoods used in the crafting of furniture. Softwood is usually wood from gymnosperm trees such as pines and spruces softwoods are not necessarily softer than hardwoods.

For example swietena mahagony south american mahogany and african mahogany are all marketed as mahogany but their. For example balsa wood is known as one of the softest and least dense types of wood yet it is. The most common type of cedar is the western red variety. Most common hardwoods unlike the conifers or softwood firs spruce and pines hardwood trees have evolved into a broad array of common species.

Hough us forest products laboratory characteristics and availability of commercially important wood from the wood handbook pdf 916k. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness the range of density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods. Do note a wood s heartwood is harder than its sapwood.