Why Hardwood?

**Ball Peen** · 23rd February 2013, 10:03 AM

Can anybody tell me why hardwood seems to get used so much these days? I can understand useing some for a benchtop or a fingerboard. I've used a fair bit over the years and concluded, for me, it's best use is carpentry. It's just to rough on man and machine to make a detailed piece of furniture with a lot of joinery. A lot of it is not particularly bendy or resilient , just hard. Although the figured stuff can be very beautiful.

In colonial times it was generally Pine and Cedar, for good reason, easy to work and plenty of it. Using a machine was not an option. Not much 20th century production furniture either. Why now?

**Enfield Guy** · 23rd February 2013, 11:54 AM

I would suppose that it is for some of the reasons you alluded to, such as the availability of machines and better steel in hand tools. Could also be the challenge presented by working some of the hard heavy timbers that are native to OZ. Having said that, Silky Oak, maple, Qld Walnut, tallowood, and others are also well represented in Australian colonial furniture.

I figure that you work with what you got and try to make best use of the resources available.

Cheers

**rustynail** · 24th February 2013, 05:09 PM

Another reason for not using hardwood in times gone by was the weight factor. As all possessions were carried by horse drawn transport, weight played a significant part in choice of timber.

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