Frame Materials:
Woods

Woods - General 

There is so much you can learn about wood that I will merely restrict myself to covering wood, 'soft' and 'hard', in as much as it is relative to its uses a frame material in our industry. By the way, did you know that balsa-wood is a hardwood - yes?, but do you know why?

What is the (scientific) difference between hardwood and softwood? I was actually asked this exact question recently in my online double-glazing Q & A discussion and so have extended my pages to so as to cover answers to the questions visitors have about woods.

Hardwood comes from deciduous trees, i.e. trees that shed their leaves each year. Softwood comes from evergreens. That's it in a nutshell.

If you thought you have hardwood windows and there are knots in them, think again. They are almost certainly softwood stained dark and mocked up to fool the eye.

More specific information about:
Hardwoods
Softwoods
Wooden Windows

This is the website of Keith Nurcombe, a trade expert who often makes valuable contributions to my discussion forum: See the SupaWOOD website.