What kind of woods would be in the (a) Hard-woods (b) Soft-woods.?

Question

What kind of woods would be in the (a) Hard-woods (b) Soft-woods.?

Answer 1

Hardwoods come from deciduous trees meaning that they lose their leaves and the term has little to do with the actual hardness of the wood. Examples are Ash, Oak, Maple, Mahogany, Merbau, Ipe, Jatoba etc.

Softwoods come from evergreens and include Cypress, Pine, Fir, Redwood, Spruce etc.

Answer 2

Hickory, maple, walnut, cherry, oak, mahogany, rosewood, teak, zebrawood, birch are all hard woods. Alder, balsa, pine, basswood, redwood, are all soft woods. Some of the softer woods are classified as medium hard woods but are never the less "soft"

Answer 3

The other answers regarding coniferous and broad leaf trees are correct, but there are exceptions when the term evergreen is used etc.

Some broadleaf trees are not deciduous, ie retain their leaves more than one season, and indeed some conifers drop theirs, the best known being the larch.

I can vouch for the fact that some softwoods, are in reality too hard to allow easy working, and can be harder than so called hardwoods.

The most interesting question would be who brought this term about. I know its based on   botanical science ( which is now quite a long time back !, gymosperms and angiosperms come to mind ) using terms such as coniferous and broadleaf is'nt detailed enough.

Answer 4

Teak, Mahogany are hard woods

Deal, cedar are soft woods.

Answer 5

Oak is hardwood; pine is softwood

Answer 6

Soft-woods:  Pine, cedar, spruce, redwood, cypress, etc.  They all have varying degrees of "softness".

The term softwood means it comes from conifer trees, but depending on the specific wood, it actually may be a hardwood when it comes to applications.  For instance, fir is technically a softwood by definition, but in woodworking, it is more like a hardwood.

Hard-woods:  Oak, maple, cherry, cocobolo, ebony, mahogany, purpleheart, yellowheart, walnut, teak, bubinga, wenge, zebrawood, etc.

Hardwood means it comes from a broad-leaf tree.  These are often deciduous (meaning they drop their leaves in the fall), but not always.  Again, there are varying degrees of hardness, and some hardwoods are not hard at all.  For instance, balsa is technically a hardwood by definition, but it is very soft.