Balsa Is A Hardwood

The name balsa comes from the spanish word for raft.

Balsa is a hardwood. It is also very light of the questions choices mixture would be the best fit. The hardwood softwood terminology does make some sense. 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. Like balsa wood basswood is soft and lightweight.

High quality balsa that is balsa with a very low density can be rather expensive when purchased at hobby stores or other specialty outlets. It is the softest commercial hardwood. This wood is far from the other hardwood that you can see in the market since it has more water in it. 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.

The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth. The terms hardwood and softwood don t relate to the weight or density of the wood but to the tree type. And like balsa wood it s best to glue it together. 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. The green balsa wood is the one that contains five times more water by weight than the actual wood substance. 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. You ll see why below but it really has nothing to do with the density of the wood.

However basswood is a hardwood. Being a deciduous angiosperm balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft. Balsa is a hardwood because of its broad leaves and its flowers it is the softest commercially harvested hardwood. There are many more types of hardwood trees than there are softwood.

That said basswood supposedly never splinter or crack. Unlike balsa wood basswood doesn t grow quickly.