Is White Birch A Hardwood Or Softwood

Birch is a native hardwood that comes from the genus betula.

Is white birch a hardwood or softwood.

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. Heartwood tends to be a light reddish brown with nearly white sapwood. The wood is generally straight grained with a fine uniform texture and is generally characterized by a plain often curly or wavy pattern. Paper birch is a small to medium sized deciduous broadleaf tree found throughout the interior of british columbia.

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. 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. 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. It s interesting to note that pound for pound and dried to the same moisture content hardwoods vs.

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. Fir is the best choice but other softwoods include pine balsam spruce cedar tamarack alder and poplar. Softwoods have very similar btu or heat output values. Softwoods tend to burn faster and leave finer ash compared to hardwoods.

Softwood is the cheapest type of wood you can buy. Yellow birch and white birch are the two most commonly found in woodworking. 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. Birch has a white sapwood and light reddish brown heartwood.

On a hardness scale birch lumber ranks at the top with hard rock maple and in fact is often mistaken for maple. Wood is categorized into two groups based on their density as softwood and hardwood.