Balsa Is Hardwood

Balsa has excellent sound heat and vibration insulating properties and is also incredibly buoyant.

Balsa is hardwood.

The green balsa wood is the one that contains five times more water by weight than the actual wood substance. Being a deciduous angiosperm balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft. Strength and stiffness approximately 50 that of baltic pine pinus sylvestris. White to oatmeal in colour with high silky lustre.

You ll see why below but it really has nothing to do with the density of the wood. The terms hardwood and softwood don t relate to the weight or density of the wood but to the tree type. In fact balsa is the spanish word for raft. It is the softest commercial hardwood.

The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth. This wood is far from the other hardwood that you can see in the market since it has more water in it. Hardwood trees are angiosperms mostly decidous in the northern hemisphere but evergreens in the southern hemisphere while softwoods are conifers. Density 160 120 220 kgm3 commercially preferred density range 120 160kgm3.

Yet despite its softness balsa is technically classified as a hardwood rather than a softwood since it has broad leaves and is not a conifer. That said basswood supposedly never splinter or crack. Broad leafed flowering trees are hardwoods. The balsa wood has a solid volume that only consists of 40 of the entire tree.

There are many more types of hardwood trees than there are softwood. Balsa wood is the lightest and softest commercial hardwood timber. Although the wood of a balsa tree is soft balsa is a hardwood.