Is White Birch A Hardwood Or Softwood

Other soft hardwoods.

Is white birch a hardwood or softwood.

Paper birch is a small to medium sized deciduous broadleaf tree found throughout the interior of british columbia. Softwood is the cheapest type of wood you can buy. Softwoods tend to burn faster and leave finer ash compared to hardwoods. Heartwood tends to be a light reddish brown with nearly white sapwood.

Yellow birch and white birch are the two most commonly found in woodworking. On a hardness scale birch lumber ranks at the top with hard rock maple and in fact is often mistaken for maple. Birch is reserved for butcher blocks some tool handles and specialty. 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.

Occasionally figured pieces are available with a wide shallow curl similar to the curl found in cherry there is virtually no color distinction between annual growth rings giving birch a somewhat dull uniform appearance. Wood is categorized into two groups based on their density as softwood and hardwood. Paper birch also known as white birch is used for lumber veneer plywood and pulpwood and its smooth uniform texture makes it a popular choice for household items toys and products such as wooden spoons and toothpicks. There are over a dozen species of birch trees native to north america but the most common are white birch yellow birch and black birch.

The density of a wood is determined based on the multiple growths and physiological factors such as age diameter height radial growth geographical location site and growing conditions etc. Birch has a white sapwood and light reddish brown heartwood. It s interesting to note that pound for pound and dried to the same moisture content hardwoods vs. The wood is generally straight grained with a fine uniform texture and is generally characterized by a plain often curly or wavy pattern.

A hardwood log will typically burn longer and hotter than a softwood log that s cut and split to the same size. 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.