Balsa Is Hardwood

This wood is far from the other hardwood that you can see in the market since it has more water in it.

Balsa is hardwood.

Being a deciduous angiosperm balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft. 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. It is the softest commercial hardwood.

You ll see why below but it really has nothing to do with the density of the wood. Like balsa wood basswood is soft and lightweight. Density 160 120 220 kgm3 commercially preferred density range 120 160kgm3. Balsa has excellent sound heat and vibration insulating properties and is also incredibly buoyant.

The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth. 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. However basswood is a hardwood.

The terms hardwood and softwood don t relate to the weight or density of the wood but to the tree type. Hardwood trees are angiosperms mostly decidous in the northern hemisphere but evergreens in the southern hemisphere while softwoods are conifers. The name balsa comes from the spanish word for raft. In fact balsa is the spanish word for raft.

Although the wood of a balsa tree is soft balsa is a hardwood. White to oatmeal in colour with high silky lustre. Strength and stiffness approximately 50 that of baltic pine pinus sylvestris.