Balsa Is A Hardwood

The hardwood softwood terminology does make some sense.

Balsa is a hardwood.

Balsa lumber is very soft and light with a coarse open grain. That said basswood supposedly never splinter or crack. The terms hardwood and softwood don t relate to the weight or density of the wood but to the tree type. 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.

It is also very light of the questions choices mixture would be the best fit. This wood is far from the other hardwood that you can see in the market since it has more water in it. The balsa wood has a solid volume that only consists of 40 of the entire tree. Larger boards and lumber sold through typical hardwood dealers is hard to find but generally has a better cost per board foot than other sources.

Balsa is a hardwood because of its broad leaves and its flowers it is the softest commercially harvested hardwood. Being a deciduous angiosperm balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft. Unlike balsa wood basswood doesn t grow quickly. It is the softest commercial hardwood.

Hardwood trees are angiosperms mostly decidous in the northern hemisphere but evergreens in the southern hemisphere while softwoods are conifers. High quality balsa that is balsa with a very low density can be rather expensive when purchased at hobby stores or other specialty outlets. You ll see why below but it really has nothing to do with the density of the wood. But as the classification of balsa wood demonstrates there is no minimum weight requirement to become a hardwood.

There are many more types of hardwood trees than there are softwood. Like balsa wood basswood is soft and lightweight. The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth. The name balsa comes from the spanish word for raft.

And like balsa wood it s best to glue it together. The green balsa wood is the one that contains five times more water by weight than the actual wood substance.