This blog post explains, is oak wood hardwood or softwood?
In general, Oak wood is hardwood. It’s because of how their grows, and the properties of the trees are categorized into hardwood.Read more to learn what makes Oak trees hardwood.
Why oak is considered a hardwood?
Since there are more than 500 subspecies of oak, we’re talking about the most common ones; red oak and white oak. All the below properties are true for both.
Enclosed pores: Structure-wise, the oak trees have tiny and much more closed pores. A property of hardwoods that makes them more resistant to water than softwoods like pinewood, with open pores that absorb water.
Slow growth: The slow growth of the oak trees is evidence of why this can belong to the hardwood species.
Their growth rate is about 12” to 15” per year, meaning that it takes 80 to 100 years to become a mature tree. In contrast, most softwoods, like pinewoods take around 30 to 40 years to reach a height of 20 feet under general conditions.
Angiosperm: Oakwood trees have angiosperm seeds. According to studies all trees that produce angiosperms seeds are categorized as hardwood.
Produce flowers: All angiosperms trees produce flowers, and seeds are covered in a shell. Oak trees follow this same phenomenon, and studies say these characters made a tree hardwood.
Hard density: Hardwoods tend to have much more density than many softwoods. Similarly, oak wood has a density of 0.59-0.90 g/cm3, twice more than pinewood, fir, or spruce.
However, the harder density of wood cannot alone describe their belongings. For example, few hardwoods are out there such as balsa wood which is softer and one of the least denser.
Shed their leaves: All hardwood trees shed their leaves once a year and grow new leaves in spring. Oak trees do the same, they shed their leaves when their color gets faded away. Then born new leaves.
Broadleaves: One of the botanical properties that present oak wood trees hardwood is their shape of leaves. Oakwood trees produce broad leaves that later become flowers, this is a hardwood property.
