What is the difference between hardwood and softwood?
Softwoods are much cheaper as they come from coniferous/evergreen trees, the trees grow much faster so are more renewable. Hardwood comes from deciduous trees that take much longer to grow, the use of hardwood as less sustainable and so is more expensive. Hardwoods are more sturdy though, for the most part, but are harder to work with as they are less flexable. Softwoods on the otherhand though not as strong are versatile and some types can be bent so are used more often in the production of furnature on a mass scale. Thay can be stained to look like hardwoods. Hardwoods (like Oak and Maple) tend to have a darker colour than softwoods (like Pine.
Wood that comes from conifers or needle-baring trees is classified as softwood: pine, Douglas fir, spruce, redwood, etc. The wood from deciduous trees (trees which lose their leaves each year) is classified as hardwood. There are some woods that are classified as “soft” that may be much harder or stronger than woods that are classified as “hard”. Balsa, for example, is considered a hardwood although it is of course much softer than, say, spruce.
Related Questions
- Is it fair to say that, as a human, you enjoy the chaos and beauty of wilderness and nature, but not enough to prefer it over right angles, sterilized order, pathological security and rigorous predictability?
- Why not download Quran and Bible then burn the hard copy?
- What is the difference between hardwood and softwood?
