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Janka wood hardness scale.
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Previously:
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...516#post158794
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...787#post159855
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...124#post165067
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...352#post188835
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...363#post196507
The list seems to be quite incomplete
Frank there are literally thousands of wood. It's reasonable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank S
Funny thing about hardwood and softwood designations is it's tree related. As in all hardwoods have leaves.
Balsa, ahem... has leaves.
At least this scale is telling you something.
Mark
Yep A friend of mine and I would carry on a 1-word conversation with each other that could last off and on for days or even weeks or longer at a time. He and I were building a Drilling rig I was pretty much designing it on the fly as we went along. George the guy who owned the shop where we were building it and Tobey the guy we were building it for stayed in a constant state of confusion hearing Ron and I yell a single word at each other. One day George walked out to where we were assembling something, I think he thought he had figured out our system, anyway he yelled out tree. I came back with fir Ron said redwood. a month later we were still naming off different species of trees every once in a while, George would name off a tree then one day after about a month, he messed up and said Bamboo I came back with Bermuda Ron came back with St. Augustine George just shook his head and walked off. I'm not sure if he ever figured out he had inadvertently changed the topic from trees to grassesQuote:
Originally Posted by mwmkravchenko
I don't have much to do with most of those woods other than the mahogany and teak as I am in the wooden boat business but I do have a small piece of jarrah. A client of mine bought a lake front property and wanted to it right. He bought a 200 year old house in Boston that had floors of jarrah. He had the wood nicely removed and shipped here. After it was delivered, he told the carpenters the story and said he wanted none of that wood leaving the jobsite. By the end of that day every guy had a piece in his nail bag. Because the wood is almost fireproof, those guys were using it to make devices to smoke what then was illegal...
Attachment 44567
https://www.hitchcockandking.co.uk/h...t-woods-world/Quote:
Originally Posted by Altair
Petrified wood is pretty hard...
Attachment 44569
Ironwood is hard, but not as hard as Australian Desert Oak. Desert oak will break your axe head and take the teeth off your chainsaw chain. I’m not kidding, when Europeans first saw the aboriginals wood weapons they laughed, until they found out just how tough said wood is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragonhand
Australian jarrah is a darker colour, and certainly will burn (we use it for firewood occasionally) but it does take a lot to get it going. It is used for floors, and other uses.Quote:
Originally Posted by IntheGroove
Australian Jarrah definitely ranks up there, I think what was reffered to as Australian Desert oak may also be known as Australian Buloke or Bull-Oak. Some tout it as being part of the ironwood strain which it may be here is an interesting video of a guy explaining some of the harder and softer woods as per his research he explains of a few of the many variables of wood densities and hardness testing and why one report may greatly differ from another testing report
https://youtu.be/IfXW9Tw-3O0
Another chart
Attachment 44570
Here in Texas and some other states a known very hard wood is called Bodark, horse apple hedge apple ETC. once dried the best way to cut it is to not even try but it is no way one of the hardest woods, just like one species of Texas Mesquite at varying stages of dryness or ageing at times it is like cutting concrete with a chainsaw while at others a good sharp axe will slice through it knocking out fist sized chips
Desert Oak, Buloak and She Oak are all names used for the same tree.
As is the case with many trees being called different things but being the same tree. there are few oak trees growing in the region where I live. Post oak being 1 of them but it is not the same as the post oak that is commercially known as white oak. White oak is sometimes referred to as Iron oak as well. Any post oak found around here will have darker denser wood and when dead is like trying to saw through a steel bar. The same thing with our Mesquite trees I have some that are 12 to 15 inches in diameter and close to 50 feet tall and reasonably straight in stature not straight enough to yield lumber more than 6 to possibly 10 feet in length though, while others will only reach about 15 to 20 feet tall and will have very crocked trunksQuote:
Originally Posted by Drew1966
