Balsa Is A Hardwood

And like balsa wood it s best to glue it together.

Balsa is a hardwood.

It is also very light of the questions choices mixture would be the best fit. Unlike balsa wood basswood doesn t grow quickly. The balsa wood has a solid volume that only consists of 40 of the entire tree. The hardwood softwood terminology does make some sense.

Balsa is a hardwood because of its broad leaves and its flowers it is the softest commercially harvested hardwood. The terms hardwood and softwood don t relate to the weight or density of the wood but to the tree type. That said basswood supposedly never splinter or crack. 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.

You ll see why below but it really has nothing to do with the density of the wood. The green balsa wood is the one that contains five times more water by weight than the actual wood substance. There are many more types of hardwood trees than there are softwood. But as the classification of balsa wood demonstrates there is no minimum weight requirement to become a hardwood.

High quality balsa that is balsa with a very low density can be rather expensive when purchased at hobby stores or other specialty outlets. However basswood is a hardwood. Being a deciduous angiosperm balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft. 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.

The name balsa comes from the spanish word for raft. Hardwood trees are angiosperms mostly decidous in the northern hemisphere but evergreens in the southern hemisphere while softwoods are conifers. 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. Like balsa wood basswood is soft and lightweight.

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. The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth.