Whats the difference between softwood and hardwood?

Question

what are they both is softwood liturally just soft wood and visa-versa, or is it more complicated I really need to know thankyou
katie
xx

Answer 1

not what it seems, basically softwood keeps its leaves all year and hardwood loses them in autumn, it has nothing to do with soft and hard, balsa is a hardwood.

softwood....pines, firs etc....
hardwood...oak, elm ash.....

Answer 2

It has nothing to do with being soft or hard;
Hardwood comes from a tree with leaves.
Softwood comes from a tree with needles.
The 'softest' wood on the planet is 'Balsa', it's classified as a hardwood !

Answer 3

It depends on the location. Softwood is generally down south, whereas hardwood can be found in the north. It is a deciduous tree which provides the hardest wood!

Answer 4

'Soft' woods are evidenced by their grain and the relative strength (across the grain) from 'hard' woods.

'Soft' woods are so-called because they are indeed softer than hardwoods ... but specifially because they carry a much higher water content. The higher water content comes from the fact that softwoods are also classed as 'evergreens' ... the group of plants that does not lose their leaves over the course of the year.

Examples of softwoods are: pine, spruce, fir, cedar, cypress, juniper, larch, and hemlock.

Notice that it takes far longer to 'dry out' softwood to have adequate construction-grade materials than it does for hardwood.

Answer 5

most softwoods are coniferous and most hardwoods are decidious. its nothing to do with how hard or soft they are. Each timber has diffrent properties. Balsa is very soft but is a hard wood , and pitch pine is a softwood but can be quite hard

Answer 6

It has nothing at all to do with the wood being hard or soft, it's all about the shape of the leaves or needle on the tree it comes from.

Balsawood is soft and you can bite through it (if you really want to), but it is officially a hardwood

Answer 7

Softwood is normally from coniferous trees (evergreen), and hardwood is normally from deciduous trees (those that shed theor leaves in autumn.

Answer 8

Softwood is the wood from conifers. In addition "softwood" is an adjective applied to the trees that produce such wood: softwood trees include pine, spruce, cedar, fir, larch, douglas-fir, hemlock, cypress, redwood and yew.

As the name suggests, the wood of softwoods is softer, on average, than that of hardwoods, but only on average - the wood of yews, for example, is much harder than many hardwoods, as is the wood of Longleaf pine, while Balsa wood (technically a hardwood) is extremely soft.

Softwood and hardwood differ in microscopic structure. The structure of softwood is fairly uniform, with only two types of cells: tracheids and parenchyma cells. Softwood never has vessel elements for water transport, but relies on tracheids.

In general softwood is easy to work: it forms the bulk of wood used by man. Softwood has a huge range of uses: it is a prime material for structural building components, but is also found in furniture and other products such as millwork (mouldings, doors, windows). Softwood is also harvested for use in the production of paper, and for various types of board such as MDF. The finer softwoods find many specialty uses.

and

The term hardwood designates wood from broad-leaved (mostly deciduous, but not necessarily, in the case of tropical trees) or angiosperm trees. Hardwood contrasts with softwood, which comes from conifer trees. On average, hardwood is of higher density and hardness than softwood, but there is considerable variation in actual wood hardness in both groups, with a large amount of overlap; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood. Hardwoods have broad leaves and enclosed nuts or seeds such as acorns. They often grow in subtropical regions like Africa and also in Europe and other regions such as Asia.

Hardwood species are more varied than softwood. There are about a hundred times as many hardwood species than there are softwoods. The vessels may show considerable variation in size, shape of perforation plates (simple, scalariform, reticulate, foraminate), and structure of cell wall (e.g. spiral thickenings).

Hardwoods serve an enormous range of applications, including buildings, furniture, flooring, utensils, etc.

Hardwoods are generally far more resistant to decay than softwoods when used for exterior work. However, solid hardwood joinery is expensive compared to softwood (in the past, tropical hardwoods were easily available but the supply is now restricted due to sustainability issues) and most "hardwood" doors, for instance, now consist of a thin veneer bonded to medium-density fibreboard (MDF).

A recently classified hardwood is Palmwood, which comes from the monocotyledon group of plants and is being promoted as a sustainable alternative to the shrinking stocks of "conventional" hardwoods.

You could get more information from the 2 links below...

Answer 9

It is the density of the grain.
Yes, one is softer than the other.
Softwood is easier to cut/carve and is lighter. It is also less resistant to weather and wear and tear. It is also cheaper to buy.

Answer 10

Softwood is the wood from conifers. In addition "softwood" is an adjective applied to the trees that produce such wood: softwood trees include pine, spruce, cedar, fir, larch, douglas-fir, hemlock, cypress, redwood and yew.

As the name suggests, the wood of softwoods is softer, on average, than that of hardwoods, but only on average - the wood of yews, for example, is much harder than many hardwoods, as is the wood of Longleaf pine, while Balsa wood (technically a hardwood) is extremely soft.

Softwood and hardwood differ in microscopic structure. The structure of softwood is fairly uniform, with only two types of cells: tracheids and parenchyma cells. Softwood never has vessel elements for water transport, but relies on tracheids.

In general softwood is easy to work: it forms the bulk of wood used by man. Softwood has a huge range of uses: it is a prime material for structural building components, but is also found in furniture and other products such as millwork (mouldings, doors, windows). Softwood is also harvested for use in the production of paper, and for various types of board such as MDF. The finer softwoods find many specialty uses.

The term hardwood designates wood from broad-leaved (mostly deciduous, but not necessarily, in the case of tropical trees) or angiosperm trees. Hardwood contrasts with softwood, which comes from conifer trees. On average, hardwood is of higher density and hardness than softwood, but there is considerable variation in actual wood hardness in both groups, with a large amount of overlap; some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood. Hardwoods have broad leaves and enclosed nuts or seeds such as acorns. They often grow in subtropical regions like Africa and also in Europe and other regions such as Asia.

Hardwood species are more varied than softwood. There are about a hundred times as many hardwood species than there are softwoods. The vessels may show considerable variation in size, shape of perforation plates (simple, scalariform, reticulate, foraminate), and structure of cell wall (e.g. spiral thickenings).

Hardwoods serve an enormous range of applications, including buildings, furniture, flooring, utensils, etc.

Hardwoods are generally far more resistant to decay than softwoods when used for exterior work. However, solid hardwood joinery is expensive compared to softwood (in the past, tropical hardwoods were easily available but the supply is now restricted due to sustainability issues) and most "hardwood" doors, for instance, now consist of a thin veneer bonded to medium-density fibreboard (MDF).

A recently classified hardwood is Palmwood, which comes from the monocotyledon group of plants and is being promoted as a sustainable alternative to the shrinking stocks of "conventional" hardwoods.