Softwoods come from evergreen (coniferous) trees, such as cedar, cypress, fir, larch, pine, spruce, and redwood. The other class of wood is hardwood, which comes from angiosperms (flowering plants), such as walnut, hickory or maple.

 

Softwood is used for many woodworking projects because it is usually strong and easy to work with. 

 

The classification of the wood is misleading because softwood is not necessarily soft. While there are hardwoods that are denser than softwood, many types of softwood are much harder.

 

Softwoods do not have the same structure as hardwoods because they do not require vessels to transport water. The use of softwoods is considered to be environmentally friendly because the trees grow more quickly than hardwood trees.

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Softwood with its fast growth rate gives a continuous supply from regenerated forest areas. It is readily available, easily worked, and of relatively low cost. Softwoods, which often come from very tall straight trees, are better suited for construction work such as wall studs, joists, planks, rafters, beams, posts, decking, sheathing, sub-flooring, and shuttering.

 

In many cases, hardwoods and softwoods are both used for many of the same purposes, with more emphasis placed on the type of hardwood, or softwood, and how dense it is.

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Generally, though, softwoods are cheaper and easier to work with than hardwoods. As such, they make up the bulk of all wood used in the world, with about 80% of all timber being a softwood.

 

This is impressive considering hardwoods are much more common in the world than softwoods. Softwoods have a wide range of applications and are found in building components such as windows, doors, furniture, and medium-density fibreboard (MDF).

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Though hardwoods are often more expensive and sometimes more challenging to work with, their upside is that most, though not all, are denser, meaning many hardwoods will last longer than softwoods. For this reason, hardwoods are more likely to be found in high-quality furniture, decks, flooring, and construction that needs to last.