Is Balsa Wood A Hardwood Or Softwood

It is the softest commercial hardwood.

Is balsa wood a hardwood or softwood.

Broad leafed flowering trees are hardwoods. Surprising though it may seem balsa is a hardwood. That is hardwood isn t necessarily denser than softwood. The name balsa comes from the spanish word for raft.

The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth. The balsa tree is deciduous and classified as an angiosperm which is the same classification as a hardwood such as an oak tree. See wikipedia for more information about balsa. Balsa wood is very soft and light and is commonly used in model aeroplane building but it is not technically classified as a softwood.

Likewise balsa wood is classified as a hardwood and yet it s one of the least dense and softest types of. Balsa has excellent sound heat and vibration insulating properties and is also incredibly buoyant. But as the classification of balsa wood demonstrates there is no minimum weight requirement to become a hardwood. 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.

Evergreens do tend to be less dense than deciduous trees and therefore easier to cut while most hardwoods tend to be more dense and therefore sturdier. Balsa lumber is very soft and light with a coarse open grain. Hardwood trees are angiosperms mostly decidous in the northern hemisphere but evergreens in the southern hemisphere while softwoods are conifers. There are many more types of hardwood trees than there are softwood.

In fact balsa is the spanish word for raft. The terms hardwood and softwood don t relate to the weight or density of the wood but to the tree type. The actual hardness or density of the wood has little to do with the classification. Being a deciduous angiosperm balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft.

Is the wood balsa a softwood or hardwood. But the difference between these two types of wood isn t in their name. The hardwood softwood terminology does make some sense. 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.