Is Oak Wood Hardwood Or Softwood

Whether timber is a softwood or hardwood refers to how the trees reproduce it doesn t describe the strength of the wood.

Is oak wood hardwood or softwood.

Botanical difference between hardwood and softwood gymnosperms and angiosperms image. While hardwoods tend to produce strong wood some softwoods produce even stronger wood. In addition individual species of hardwoods vary considerably in terms of strength density color and texture. Usually slightly less expensive than white oak prices are moderate for a domestic hardwood though thicker planks or quartersawn boards are slightly more expensive.

Hardwood isn t necessarily harder or stronger than softwood balsa wood for example is an extremely soft and pliable hardwood. Although the wood from hardwood trees is generally harder douglas fir or southern yellow pine softwoods are much harder than poplar hardwood. Wikimedia commons coming to the reproductive description in botanical terms softwood trees are gymnosperms whereas hardwood trees are angiosperms the seeds of hardwood trees will have a shell or a fruit. It does not imply a superior hardness density or quality of wood produced.

Oak is a hardwood and douglas fir is a softwood which means that oak is harder right. Wood species between hardwood and softwood is not the deciding factor in pellet quality. The pelletizing process gives manufacturers precise control over the composition of wood pellets. Red oak wood is almost exactly twice as hard as douglas fir wood and white oak wood is even harder.

Simple answer is that it is a hardwood. That reasoning doesn t apply in every instance but in this case it does. 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 manufacturer and the region the wood is being procured from has more to do with pellet quality than whether it is a hardwood or softwood pellet.

But a hardwood is not necessarily a harder denser material than a softwood. This wood species is not listed in the cites appendices or on the iucn red list of threatened species. 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. From angiosperm trees that are not monocots and usually broad leaved and has vessel elements that transport water throughout the wood hardwood is formed and these elements appear as pores under a microscope.

If it has needles it s considered a softwood.