Thank you for being academically honest in the information you provide instead of falling prey to the copy-and-paste disease.

I’m in the KZfaq rabbit hole right now. What a find! Thanks for the great info.

13:30 for the fast answer.

It's so good to have people like you in the world - Huge knowledge, and sharing it in an absolutely methodical, easy to use and clear manner, so we can all benefit from it. Thanks so much for doing what you do, I use your website's filter function regularly to compare woods (whilst being aware of all the variation you mention in this video!) and it's just great. Thank you!

I love people being passionate about their interest, no matter how niche or common it is. Love the video

Thanks for putting together this poster and the wood database. They've been very helpful and a great reference tool.

Don't let it get to you, because people are this way with almost everything. I'm really into super hot peppers and the chili-head community is always in search of a newer hotter highbred, or sauce. Ironically, most of those people can't handle a habanero, but they have to be able to say they've eaten the hottest. Also, like with wood, peppers can have a huge range of heat, even off of the same plant..."duds & demons" I always say. Anyway, chin up and enjoy the grain!

I live in the Buloke Shire and I work the wood too.It's tough and beautiful as well.I can easily hammer in nails using one of my Buloke hammers

Just want to THANK YOU for your website. I am new to exotic wood and have found your site to be most valuable. So THANK YOU AGAIN for your efforts. Live long and prosper! I am basically making personal use feet for high end audio equipment from stuff like Cocobolo and African Blackwood..

try magkono tree in the philippines ,,,, loggers dont bother with it coz its a waste of time taking it down they call it iron wood too

South American Sorbota, I saw a blunt tool made out of it and they used it to drive nails. It's very dark brown with blueish stripes. The trees a 6' bush plant that grows in cliff's and dry rocky areas. it has a thick scaly bark, with sharp brittle edges, it's also very heavy. The Incas used it for war clubs. Sorbota is very toxic to cut and sand on. A very popular wood for door frames as insects and ants will not walk on exposed Sorbota wood with no bark. Very pretty wood but you cant handle it long with your hands it has to have a wrap if its a spear or handle on a club. The wood turns your skin yellowish, and the color wont wash off. Has a varnish oily smell and is super hard to light on fire.

I'm working with some Ekki "ironwood" sleepers right now that are like cutting stone, it's incredible stuff.

You threw me off at first but a little in the video in made sense why it is not just a simple answer. Basically people do not know what they are asking when it comes to this question.What is the hardest wood? For what? To know so I can get it and have the strongest wood in the world! for what? Because. Without realizing that hardest does not make the best wood as it starts becoming brittle. Once you understand the qualities of wood then you start to develop a solid common sense for it.

We all view the world (reality) through the lense our education and experience. My lens includes a study of statistics. Your explanation of how and why you have chosen the hardest wood species is one element of the basic idea of descriptive statistics. Almost everyone interested in "the truth" could benefit from a basic understanding of descriptive statistics. While there are many good sources, a plainly written but not overly or heavily mathematical version is "Statistics - A New Approach" by W. Allen Wallis and Harry V. Roberts published by The Free Press in 1956. Thanks for sharing your work.

Philippine Magkuno tree four days to cut using diamond tooth saw. To cut the tree, it requires at least four days using a diamond-point saws because of its hardness and high density. It is a durable material used by our ancestors in making the casket of the departed members of the community. The display in the National Museum in Butuan City proves that this wood can outlast everyone and even a civilization for about thousands of years and yet has shown no decay. Our ancestors also utilized it as primary foundation for building houses and poles for the balangay and even used as materials for some novelty items as decoration inside the house.

Excellent presentation!

I like your commitment to accuracy and explaining the differences between individual samples. I came here after watching a more sensationalist, cherry picking approach finding to the hardest and softest woods.

This video was refreshing. Thank you!

Thanks for this very informative video ... It certainly explains a lot.

I think, and in order to consider a balance between the compressive strength and tensile strength of the wood fibres under flexure, a better indication of the overall strength of a wood used under a bow action, is to consider the ratio (MOR/MOE)/(MOR/Crushing strength), as long as MOR/Crushing strength is closer to unity (that is the reason I have not canceled out the MOR from the fraction). The most appropriate wood, in this respect, for bow usage, would be that havin g the highest above ratio. Thus, and investigating only a few strong woods (Osage Orange; Pacific Yew; African Blackwood; Ipe; Lignum Vitae), it appears that the Pacific Yew wood is the most appropriate wood for bows, having a ratio equal to about 6.

Very true. People forget about biological variation. I've just sawn up 11 Azobe sleepers. Some were definitely harder than others and that was just a tiny sample.

Any advice for determining the difference between Waddywood and Purple Gidgee?

"It's not always as cut-and-dried as you might think." All this disciplined objectivity and punny too? You're a real dyed-in-the wool" scholar though . . . You are a rare find, my friend, even (especially?) among academics.

So interesting !.., I have a question, Does harder the wood = greater density and weight? and also does harder the wood = less resonance or greater resonance? apologies in advance if this is rudimentary. Many thanks

1 question reminds, which is the hardest that is available widely (world wide even?

This is a great video. I don't understand the downvotes. Wikipedia is great, but it's shockingly bad for accurate data on wood hardness.

Thanks for the video and thanks for a great website! Brilliant resource I often make use of.

sir did you see magcono here in Philippines?..we used it in our boats propeller shafting bushings..its not ordinary wood i think

The hardest wood grows in the driest poorest soil .

Every Wood MUST BE TESTED This Is The Modern Days Ladies And GentleMen.....

I assume that this list is old? I see no mention of Australian Buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii), which from my findings was the densest wood at 5,060 lbf on the Janka hardness scale. Could be a fluke or outdated, but just wanted to double check. I also usually see people in the woodworking world never acknowledge this tree, so maybe its simply not viable for woodworking uses? Since woodworkers mention waddy wood is the densest, so maybe thats the only one that can be made into planks. Just a thought

I really like a thorough analysis. Nice video!

How did you come to know all this data about wood? I really liked this video, the math is well over my head but even so I did get to understand a bit of it. I still want to know how you learned all of this. I'm guessing you probably are the top would knowledge guy in the world after watching your videos and reading all of your website. Your website is something every single wood worker should study, also which woods are now cites listed. I miss my bubinga wood.

You can find the it in the Philippines. Philippine iron wood tree or magkuno.

If humans lived 1000 years, somebody would be growing the showest but hardest trees

Is the shelf full of wood samples behind you the only shelf you own?...or do you have 20 more off camera?

So I'm still new to this stuff , so what wood would u recommend for a beginner?

I just love the wood database! Also i love that i can ask you this question. How come you don`t have medlar wood in your database? I cut down a dead medlar tree in my yard and i decided to plane a piece and see what is in there. One of the finest gran structures and color i ever saw! Super smooth very nice. So i went to wood database to get more info and omg there is NO medlar there! Get medlar bruh! Love the site! :)

You mentioned that a tree growing really slow could possibly make the wood much denser and heavier. Is there a way to promote this type of growth to produce denser specimens more often? What what a technique like this mean for tree? Would it end up stunting it's size? I'm not planning to try it myself, but this has piqued my interest.

magkuno tree in philippines...

No better guy to do it! :0) It seems like trivia now but wood will get softer as species die out. This is an awesome and practical record to have. In 1890 Robert Hutchenson, a medical professional and avid book writer catalogued some trees in Scotland. Back then his book was considered interesting trivia, he was no dendrologist... Now, we rely (sometimes soley) on that survey for selected dendrochronological information to make calculations... This is not trivia mate. This is great research. If your stuff is referenced with stats it isnt a choice where the material lands on the list... its the truth.

I noticed that they had changed the wiki on the Janka Hardness Test to correct the previous mistakes, and they had list the recorded least dense wood as balsa. Not sure if this was you but if it wasn't here's the link - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test

Basically folks, this stuff isn't anywhere near as cut and dry as it is in an RPG.

What are the most common practical uses for the hardest woods available for purchase? Let's exclude Waddywood, since, as you stated in the video, it's endangered and protected. The reason this sparks my interest is that years ago I was in a boutique furniture store where the salesman touted that one of the bed frames on the showroom floor was made of Iron Wood. I recall he said it was a South America Iron Wood...possibly Brazilian (can't remember for sure), but not Australian Iron Wood. In either case, as a selling point, he emphasized that it was one of the hardest, densest and rarest woods, which is why the price tag on the bed (aside from workmanship) was several thousand dollars. Was the salesman full of it or is what he was saying reasonable to believe? If it is reasonable, do any of you wood experts have advice on how hardwood furniture should be inspected for quality and is there a way to verify that the wood being advertised is in fact the wood being purchased? For example is there some type of DNA testing that can be done...maybe that's impractical but maybe there's still some other reasonable means of verifying authenticity. Ultimately, I want to verify what I'm paying for and not get duped.

imagine they use these woods as bats in baseball.

I am working with some iron wood. Does it glue up like most woods. What router bits do you recommend. Geat video and thanks for sharing. This wood is rock hard.

Cant u explain about this tree Eusideroxylon zwageri tree Family : lauranceae In malaysia rain forest jungle tree Neobalanocarpus heimii (king ashton) Family : dipterocarpaceae Also same malaysia rain forest Genus : shorea Family : Dipterocarpaceae Also same malaysia rain forest Genus : hopea Family :Dipterocarpaceae Also same malaysia rain forest Genus : hopea Family : Dipterocarpaceae Drynobalanops aromatica Genus : ? Family : Dipterocarpus Dipterocarpus oblongifolius Also same malaysia rain forest I like your channel so many information...i love tree In out forest my duty every 3 month, i renjer jungle malaysia.

In Australia we have a tree called rosewood now this grows in dry arid country in thin soil and rocky country ,it is so hard and heavy i had to use tungsten to cut it as it does not take long before you cannot do anything with it hey will not rot they look the same as posts in 50 yrs and they do not deteriorate,ihave used iron bark too but Rose wood is by far the hardest timber i have ever known,you cannot even use a chain saw with this wood after a few weeks of cutting

what I would like to know is what is the (I'm going to stinkiest ) smelliest wood in the world , ,Regards Alf

People seem to want the hardest wood I was very much like that but just to grab a good rock it could very well be harder than steel at that poi t why wood

thank you. you are doing a great job!

As the Wood Dude here, I feel that you are more likely to discover the best sources for accurate information on studies and papers of wood hardness. Isn't this stuff your career? Why the heck are you asking us?😂

Your discussion here of variation might be better served if, instead of your "average" (i.e., arithmetic mean) you report the mean of your values, along with their standard deviation.... From a perspective of Wood Science, some information about the distribution of trees, along with some projection of production, would be useful: why insist on lignum vitae when a very hard, common species that grows to 100m might substitute? (Or maybe that's your point here.)

good wisdom.

Well I guess this explains why waddy are made from waddywood.

By far the most hardest wood ive ever rncountered was in cebu..and believe me it made my bolo sparks..and dulled it..!!!it has a shiny black like coal skin and its really tough to cut..it made me come back three times just to cut a small peice of u It..

Anyone else here looking for a material to make a gaffi stick?

quebracho

#1 Puriri

What about Ironwood from Arizona? The stuff is like petrified wood.

Have you tested Boxwood(Buxus)?White wood and it sinks in water just like the ebony.Its used to make chess pieces and somme are temperate species and verry common.I think if you would make a list with the fastest growing tree species (maybe based on the size of the ring growths) would be just as interesting as the hardwoods list and more ecological with probably more impact on the people-manny people started to plant Paulownia trees wich are sayd to be the fastest growing trees in the world and the wood its described as the ,,the aluminum of woods,,.As for the most beautifull wood i think its the plum because it has heartwood brown reddish with pink,orange and green lines in it .After reading about endangered trees ,manny times i was directed to your site and i have read somme interesting facts there.

Thanks for the info. You help so many people with your knowedge. Maybe with all your data, include your own Janka test, as additional knowledge? (if you dont already do?)

What about Aussie Iron Bark and Gidge axes bounce off them

First, THANK YOU, for what you do. The website (top of my woodworking category favorites list) the research, the contentious effort to objectively educate share and inform; these are priceless resources you provide the world. I like many others am grateful to you, sir, for your efforts. I am curious though; do you do any of the Janka testing or measurements yourself or are the figures you provide for wood species the result of research from other sources that you aggregate into a pool for the rest of us? Lastly do you have any sources for these kinds of values on Lonicera maackii (Amur honeysuckle). It is a shrub and not technically a tree. It is also a plague in the central mid-western plains states. The plant grows faster, sprouts leaves sooner and retains them longer than native species. This invasive species can completely dominate the under-story of a forest and this mono culture prevents the rejuvenation of native forests by blocking all of the light young seedlings need to be able to grow. I cut it back and down at my place every where I see it. However, It can grow arrow straight for about 3 or four feet or more sometimes. I have found it to be useful for all sorts of things; staking/trellising plants in the garden, sharpen it into a crude spear and kill moles with it, fire pokin' sticks for the kids, etc. Really old specimens can get trunks that are 8" in diameter and over 20 feet tall. I had a small piece of it about an inch in diameter that dried out in my daughters room and I stumbled across it a few months ago. It was dry as a bone almost completely white, and nearly as hard as bone. I've seen some people do turning on the root balls. All complain that the stuff splits and cracks all over the place. I read another post on a non wood working forum from many years ago where a guy made a bow out of it and swore it was one of the finest he'd ever made and that the wood exceeded even the properties of Osage orange for such an application. I have some thick 6"+ trunk pieces drying in my shed now to see what I can do with it maybe. But that's all anecdotal stuff . We need data man, and more excuses to cut this stuff down at every opportunity. So I am currently trying to produce some sample material. I'd be happy to ship you some if you know of a way to get it evaluated like the other species you have so dutifully profiled.

I like lignum vitae. It's swell.

Kamagong iron wood the hardest wood in the Philippines

We have one here in the philippines called lpcally kamagong..

If you want hard wood get some maple. If it isnt hard enough you aren't looking for wood.