WOOD TYPES

HARDWOODS & SOFTWOODS

Nouran Mahmoud Gamil | 25.10.2023

INTRODUCTION:
Wood is a structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants.
It is an organic material – a natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension
and embedded in a matrix of lignin that resists compression.

Wood has been used for thousands of years for

fuel, as a construction material, for making tools
and weapons, furniture, and paper. More recently
it emerged as a feedstock for the production of
purified cellulose and its derivatives, such as
cellophane and cellulose acetate, Wood has also
been used through the years in fuel which has a
long history of being used as fuel, which continues
to this day, mostly in rural areas of the world. Has
been used in construction since humans began
building shelters, houses, and boats. Nearly all
boats were made out of wood until the late 19th
century, and wood remains in common use today
in boat construction.

Wood is also used in Flooring and furnishing, 1 : Wood samples

Wood has always been used extensively for furniture, such as chairs and beds. It is also
used for tool handles and cutlery, such as chopsticks, toothpicks, and other utensils, like
the wooden spoon and pencil. Also in arts wood has long been used as an artistic medium.
It has been used to make sculptures and carvings for millennia, we can’t sum up wood
uses in such few lines as it has countless usages.

To focus on the main topic in this research which is wood furniture, kinds of wood
whether hard or soft, and make a clear classification for each one of them.

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HARDWOOD:

Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in

broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and
boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and
subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from
angiosperm trees) contrasts with softwood (which is from
gymnosperm trees).

Hardwoods have a more complex structure than softwoods and

are often much slower growing as a result. The dominant feature
separating "hardwoods" from softwoods is the presence of pores
2: Dicotyledons also
or vessels. The vessels may show considerable variation in size,
known as dicot .
shape of perforation plates (simple, scalariform, reticulate,
foraminate), and structure of cell wall, such as spiral thickenings.

As the name suggests, the wood from these trees is generally harder than that of
softwoods, but there are significant exceptions. In both groups, there is an enormous
variation in actual wood hardness, with the range in density in hardwoods.

Examples of Hardwoods :

The most common types of hardwoods include Oak, Teak, Sapele, Iroko and Meranti. As
these grow at a much slower rate and require longer drying times, these factors drive up
the cost of the wood. Hardwoods tend to be much more resilient than softwoods and are
often reserved for projects that require maximum durability.

But also there are more kinds of Hardwoods like

 Birch
 Maple
 Black Walnut
 Hickory
 Red oak
 Beech
 Alder
 Cedar
 Elm
 Mahogany
 Ash.

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PRICES:
As the hardwoods take much time to grow
therefore its prices are much higher, for
example :

Beechwood costs between 24000 – 28000 LE

Pinewood costs between 12000 – 15000 LE

It is one of the cheapest types of wood because 3: Beech trees

of the many knots in it, and the more knots there are, the lower its price.

Mahogany costs between 24000 – 24500 LE

An exceptionally durable hardwood, it is the ideal choice for furniture and fittings around
the home.

Teak wood costs 24500 LE

is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree
that occurs in mixed hardwood forests.

Oakwood costs 25000 LE

hardwood tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family.

5: Teak forest with large foliage in 4: Mahogany tree plantation in

Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, India Jessore, Bangladesh

SOFTWOOD:

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Softwood is a term used to describe timber sourced from
coniferous or needle-leaved trees. Hardwood is sourced
from deciduous and evergreen broad-leaved trees.

It is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The

term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from
angiosperm trees. The main difference between
hardwoods and softwoods is that the structure of
hardwoods lacks resin canals, whereas softwoods lack
pores (though not all softwoods have resin canals).
6: Various gymnosperms.
Softwoods are not necessarily softer than hardwoods. The
hardest hardwoods are much harder than any softwood,[citation needed] but in both
groups, there is an enormous variation with the range of wood hardness of the two groups
overlapping. For example, balsa wood, which is a hardwood, is softer than most softwoods,
whereas the longleaf pine, Douglas fir, and yew softwoods are much harder than several
hardwoods.

Softwoods are generally most used by the construction industry and are also used to
produce paper pulp and card products. In many of these applications, there is a constant
need for density and thickness monitoring and gamma-ray sensors have shown good
performance in this case.

Softwood is the source of about 80% of the world's

production of timber, with traditional centers of
production being the Baltic region (including
Scandinavia and Russia), North America, and China.
Softwood is typically used in construction as structural
carcassing timber, as well as finishing timber.

7: Timber
Examples of softwoods :

 Cedarwood
 Douglas fir
 Spruce wood
 Fir wood
 Larch wood
 Western red cedar
 Hemlock
 Juniper wood

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  Western Hemlock
 Pinewood

PRICES:
Softwoods are cheaper and easier to work with. As such they make up the majority of all
wood used in the world, with about 80% of timber being a softwood, For example :

Pinewood costs between 42000 – 38000 LE

an evergreen coniferous tree that has clusters of long needle-

shaped leaves. Many kinds are grown for the soft timber, which
is widely used for furniture and pulp.

Cedarwood costs 15000 LE

Cedar trees fall under the genus Cedrus, and pine trees make up
the genus Pinus. 8: pine - Pinus of the
family Pinaceae.
Firwood costs between 2285 – 3165 LE

Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus Abies in the family Pinaceae.
There are approximately 48–56 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of
North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely
related to Cedrus (cedar).

10: Korean fir9:(Abies

Lebanon cedarcones
Korean) in Al Shouf Cedar
Nature Reserve in Barouk, Lebanon
and foliage

REFERENCES:

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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedrus
 https://iitimber.co.uk/blog/portfolio-item/softwood-timber-choosing-the-
right-timber/#:~:text=Fir%2C%20pine%2C%20redwood%20and
%20cedar,Cedar%20ideal%20for%20timber%20cladding.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softwood
 https://www.biltafsil.com/143/prices-of-wood-today-in-egypt/
 https://www.almaal.org/wood-prices-in-egypt
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softwood
 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-
sciences/softwood
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahogany
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beech
 https://www.elaosboa.com/853893/
 https://5msh.com/price-wood
 https://www.biltafsil.com/143/prices-of-wood-today-in-egypt/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood
 https://cameroontimberexport.com/types-of-hardwood/
 https://parsonsjoinery.com/about-wood/hardwood-versus-softwood

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