What is hardwood?
Q: What is hardwood?
A: Hardwood is wood from deciduous trees and broad-leaf evergreen trees. All hardwoods are angiosperms, which are flowering plants, the largest group of land plants.
Q: How does hardwood differ from softwood?
A: Softwood comes from conifers, cone bearing seed plants, while hardwoods usually have broad leaves and come from deciduous or broad-leafed evergreen trees. Hardwoods also grow slower than softwoods and some are excellent for carving.
Q: Are all hardwoods harder than softwoods?
A: No, not all hardwoods are harder than softwoods; balsa wood is an example of this.
Q: How many species of hardwood exist compared to softwood?
A: There are about 100 times more species of hardwood than there are softwoods.
Q: What causes the properties of the wood?
A: The properties of the wood are caused by its structure; hardwoods have a denser structure which is why they're usually harder and heavier. They also have xylem vessels used to transport water and their cell walls contain lignin which is a strong material used to support plants above the surface. Softwoods have a similar vascular structure but with less lignin present than most hardwoods.
Q: What type of wood is recognized as being one of the hardest?
A: Black ironwood has been recognized by Guinness Book Of World Records as being one of the heaviest woods and therefore one of the hardest types of wood available.
Q: Why do iron woods sink in water rather than float like other woods do?
A: Iron woods sink in water because they're so dense; this density contributes to them being one of the hardest types of wood available
