Balsa Is A Hardwood

That said basswood supposedly never splinter or crack.

Balsa is a hardwood.

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. High quality balsa that is balsa with a very low density can be rather expensive when purchased at hobby stores or other specialty outlets. Unlike balsa wood basswood doesn t grow quickly. However basswood is a hardwood.

The name balsa comes from the spanish word for raft. Balsa is a hardwood because of its broad leaves and its flowers it is the softest commercially harvested 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. The balsa wood has a solid volume that only consists of 40 of the entire tree.

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. Being a deciduous angiosperm balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft. The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth. Balsa lumber is very soft and light with a coarse open grain.

And like balsa wood it s best to glue it together. You ll see why below but it really has nothing to do with the density of the wood. Hardwood trees are angiosperms mostly decidous in the northern hemisphere but evergreens in the southern hemisphere while softwoods are conifers. But as the classification of balsa wood demonstrates there is no minimum weight requirement to become a hardwood.

The green balsa wood is the one that contains five times more water by weight than the actual wood substance. Like balsa wood basswood is soft and lightweight. There are many more types of hardwood trees than there are softwood. 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.

This wood is far from the other hardwood that you can see in the market since it has more water in it. The hardwood softwood terminology does make some sense.