SESKStuff Everyone Should Know
SESK: Stuff Everyone Should Know · sesk.info/wood-what-hardwood-means

What makes a tree a "hardwood" in woodworking terms?

It is a flowering, broadleaf tree, an angiosperm.

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  1. It comes from a flowering broadleaf tree ✔
  2. It grows more slowly than evergreens
  3. It measures harder than a set Janka rating

Why: Hardwood is a botanical label, not a hardness test. Hardwoods are angiosperms, with seeds enclosed in a flower's ovary, and they contain pore-like vessel cells. Softwoods come from cone-bearing conifers.

Huh, didn't know that: The handbook points out that the names can confuse, because some softwoods are actually harder than some hardwoods.

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Why did the pine tree get into trouble? Because it was being knotty.
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References

Answer: It comes from a flowering broadleaf tree. Hardwood is a botanical label, not a hardness test. Hardwoods are angiosperms, with seeds enclosed in a flower's ovary, and they contain pore-like vessel cells. Softwoods come from cone-bearing conifers.

  1. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material, FPL-GTR-282 (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, 2021) research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/62200
    Botanically, hardwoods are angiosperms; their seeds are enclosed in the ovary of the flower.
    Checked 2026-10-10.

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