Timber Types Hardwood And Softwood

Hough us forest products laboratory characteristics and availability of commercially important wood from the wood handbook pdf 916k.

Timber types hardwood and softwood.

What are softwood species. Types of softwood cedar cedar wood image. Softwoods come from conifer trees or cone bearing trees. 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.

Hardwood species are not always necessarily stronger than softwoods but many species are well known for their beautiful and distinct wood grain patterns. There are also some woods which are considered to be hardwoods that are not deciduous trees such as bamboo and palm. Wikimedia commons the reason why we have included this wood in our list of softwoods is that people tend to consider cedar as hardwood but no it is a softwood. Common hardwood species include oak maple cherry mahogany and walnut.

Softwood species pretty pretty wood. Hardwood is not necessarily a harder material more dense and a softwood is not necessarily a softer material less dense. North american softwood species have needle shaped foliage instead of the leaves found on hardwood trees. Exhibited by actual specimens and with copious explanatory text by romeyn b.

A guide to the grain. 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.