Top 20 Hardest Woods In The World

It comes from a tree native to areas including Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. A trade wood, lignum vitae comes from trees of the genus Guaiacum which are indigenous to the Caribbean as well as the northern coast of South America. This wood has been used since the 16th century, combining strength, density and toughness at an impressive 4,500 lbf in the Janka hardness test. Pockholz is also known as lignum vitae and guayacan.

Loosely related to Lignum Vitae and called Argentine Lignum vitae this is an exceptional and beautiful hardwood. Reported to be extremely difficult to work because of the density and hardness and rather difficult to get a decent glue joint on it because of the oil content of the wood. Has a severe blunting effect on woodworking tools but does turn and polish well. Yes, it is also called Osage Orange, scientific name is Maclura pomifera. It’s certainly among the hardest woods in the United States, but not even close to topping the list of worldwide woods. The third hardest wood it is a tree native to Australia, having very dark color, and can be used as a substitute for mahogany.

Brazilian Cherry is 228% harder than domestic red oak, making it a strong, durable wood and a reliable choice in flooring. The hardness of wood is measured using the Janka Hardness Test. The hardest commercially available hardwood is hickory, and it is five times harder than aspen, one of the “soft” hardwoods. And while this example lists just some of the most popular hardwood species, there are hundreds of varieties, representing the North American hardwood population. Because hardness is an important factor, and hardness varies for each species, the Janka Scale of Hardness is an excellent tool to help identify appropriate choices.

710 Lbf 16,520 N

The wood is hard to work with and blunts tools easily. Another problem is getting a decent glue joint because of the oil content in the wood. Because of the small size of the tree large pieces of timber is uncommon and thus the wood is mostly used for small projects like inlays, turning and knife handles. Pieces of wood with the characteristic snake skin pattern ranks up there with African Blackwood in price. The wood is relatively rot resistant and like the name, ebony suggests the color ranges from brownish black to nearly black. Like the African Blackwood is sometimes has a purple hue.

Maple is one of the hardest wood types for furniture. Average Dried Weight lbs/ft3 Janka Hardness 1,880 lbf Crushing Strength 9,210 lbf/in2 Colour Sapwood is white to gray. It’s mainly used for outdoor construction like in railroads, marine ships, and implement handles. It’s rarely used as flooring, but there are some companies that offer them. But as its name suggests, it can exhibit a variety of stripings and colors.

Top 5 Hardest Woods In The World

The cost of the seeds would be quite low compared to the freight charges, particularly if you get them from several different suppliers. My recommendation is to contact a commercial seed merchant. Most will sell small quantities, and you can expect the seeds to be viable. As for your forest, you will need a suitable climate and soil, and then a LOT of time. These dense, hard woods are usually very slow growing, and harvested trees are often hundreds of years old. The availability of African Blackwood is hindered by the slow growth cycles of the trees, given their sparse natural habitat.

The main gold-line used in choosing the strongest wood is in considering the grain patterns and the heartwood. The grains need to be so tight as to increase the density of the wood which automatically improves the strength. Heartwood on the other side is the wood that is milled from the heart of the tree. This is always the strongest and hardest part of any tree.

Drum shells are also popularly constructed using the strongest wood. There is no way that a list of the strongest wood in the world can go without mentioning maple wood. Maples are mainly trees capable of attaining a meter height, with other species being shrubs that are less than 10 meters in height. The shrub species have some small trunks that originate at the ground level. Itin, also known as Caranda, is one of the more common exotic hardwoods on the top of the list of heaviest woods. Itin is one of the species identified as mesquite trees, lending itself to a fragrant smell when being worked.

The tree is about 1 meter in diameter and 9-15 meters high. The color of this wood varies from shades of light brown to reddish brown. A dense, heavy wood originating from Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, this wood has a Janka rating of 3,692.

Related to mesquite, it’s very dark, very dense, and very hard; a good substitute for ebony. Lignum vitae, another of the exotic hardwoods, has a naturally olive appearance, that is known to increase in darkness depending on the age of the tree. African Blackwood is often assumed to have been the first true ebony, although not grouped in with the same species as true ebonies.

I’ve never heard of any softwood, when fully dry to 12% moisture content, that would sink in water. This wood is very heavy but light in culour similar to light oak but much heavier and stronger it grows in indiia and similare countries expensive. Density listings are for woods at a dried weight of 12% moisture content. Widely accepted as the heaviest wood in the world–this wood has been listed as an endangered species and is listed inCITES.

Its natural habitat is in the tropical moist lowlands where it thrives well. The African Pear wood is characterized with a 3680 lbf Janka hardness rating, which makes it ideally as strong and as hard as the Brazilian walnut. It is commonly used in making of both the outdoor as well as the indoor furniture. It is also used as a burning wood for cooking in its native countries.

Tropical Hardwoods, including mahogany, rosewood, teak and wenge – are not native to North America. They grow in the tropical forests of the world and must be imported for domestic use. For more information on non-native species, refer to the “Don’t be fooled” article. Hardwoods are deciduous trees that have broad leaves, produce a fruit or nut and generally go dormant in the winter. North America’s forests grow hundreds of varieties that thrive in temperate climates, including oak, ash, cherry, maple and poplar species.

We will also discuss a misunderstanding on this subject. Black ironwood is one of the densest woods on the list and tends to be difficult to work with because of that. It also comes from a tree that is considered extremely small, so the pieces available to work with tend to be much smaller, and only workable for smaller projects. When it comes to selecting wood for a project, large or small, sometimes the weight of the wood can be the biggest determining factor for which wood you use. The list below is some of the heaviest woods in the world based on their average dry weight per cubic foot.