Is Doug Fir A Hardwood Or Softwood

Oak is a hardwood and douglas fir is a softwood which means that oak is harder right.

Is doug fir a hardwood or softwood.

Balsa is a hardwood but its wood is so soft and lightweight that it s most commonly used for making model airplanes. Due to its strength it is used for building and construction and is one of the finest timbers for heavy structural purposes including glulam beams and roof trusses. Examples of softwood trees are cedar douglas fir juniper pine redwood spruce and yew. Douglas fir is a large tree reaching 85 metres on bc s coast and 42 metres in the interior.

However douglas fir which is a gymnosperm or softwood is actually harder than chestnut an angiosperm that most people would call a hardwood. Douglas fir like all firs is a softwood softwood is actually a term that is used to classify all the conifers while hardwood is used as a classification for all angiosperm trees. Red oak wood is almost exactly twice as hard as douglas fir wood and white oak wood is even harder. Douglas fir is technically not a true fir abies genus but is in its own genus.

The tree itself grows to be very large and yields a large amount of usable lumber and veneer for plywood. That reasoning doesn t apply in every instance but in this case it does. Most softwoods have a lower density than most hardwoods. Most hardwoods have a higher density than most softwoods.

It is an incredibly valuable commercial timber widely used in construction and building purposes.