Hardwood or softwood?
Hardwood
Hardwood comes from fruit or nut trees. Some of them grow in cool temperate zones and others in the hot tropical regions of the earth. The ones that grow in cooler areas are called deciduous. This means that they lose their leaves in winter, such as oak, ash, walnut and beech. The hardwood trees from tropical regions grow steadily all year round. The lack of a winter means that they do not experience a leaf fall. This is because tropical areas have just two seasons, wet and dry. Two popular tropical hardwoods used for furniture are teak and mahogany.
Why are they called hardwoods? It is easy to assume that they are always harder than softwoods but that is not always the case. A hardwood simply bears fruit, not cones. Therefore balsawood which is extremely soft and used in model-making, is a hardwood.
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Softwood
Softwoods grow from conifer trees. They generally have needles instead of leaves. These softwood conifer trees grow naturally in the colder regions of the world such as Sweden and Scotland. They have also been introduced into parts of England. Some of the softwoods used in furniture manufacture are pine, redwood, cedar and Douglas fir.
England’s ancient woodlands are broad-leaved trees but conifers are now grown widely because they grow very quickly and are also useful for paper production. Some softwoods are hard, for example of a hard softwood is parana pine. It is often seen in solid wood doors in Edwardian and Victorian homes. It is harder than many hardwoods.
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