What is the difference between alder and birch?

Alder has yellow-green, racquet-shaped leaves with indented tips and finely serrated edges. They are alternately arranged on the branches. Birch has oval or elliptical leaves with pointed tips and toothed margins. They are greenish-yellow on the upper side, and light-green on the bottom side.

Is Alder a soft or hard wood?

Alder is a relatively soft hardwood of medium density that has low bending strength, shock resistance, and stiffness. Available in dimension stock and lumber. Furniture, kitchen cabinets, doors, shutters, moulding, panel stock, turnings, carvings, and kitchen utensils.

Is birch a strong wood?

Birch wood is a hardwood that is extremely strong and durable and so is a smart choice for solid hardwood furniture. Birch wood has a beautiful appearance; it is fine grained and has a pale color giving it an elegant look to clean line furniture designs.

Is birch a softer wood?

Birch as a Hardwood On a hardness scale, birch lumber ranks at the top with hard-rock maple, and in fact is often mistaken for maple.

Does alder look like birch?

The leaves of birches and alders are very similar, frequently leading to confusion between the species. Both are serrated and oval-shaped, about 2 to 3 inches wide by 3 to 4 inches long. Birch leaves have a pointed tip, and some varieties are spade-shaped, while alders are generally more rounded in appearance.

Are alder trees good?

Alder trees (Alnus spp.) are often used in re-forestation projects and to stabilize soil in wet areas, but you seldom see them in residential landscapes. Nurseries that cater to home gardeners rarely offer them for sale, but when you can find them, these handsome plants make excellent shade trees and screening shrubs.

How hard is birch wood?

With a Janka Hardness rating of 1260 out of 4000, the Yellow Birch wood species falls within the medium range for hardwood flooring options. The Janka Hardness scale is used to determine a hardwood’s resistance to dents, dings, and scratches.

Which wood is harder pine or alder?

Alder on the other hand is usually very consistent as far as its weight is concerned from piece to piece. The list below is sorted by hardness, softest to lightest….Is this list complete? That’s where you come in.

Is birch hard to cut?

Woodworking machinery cuts birch with ease, but because of interlocked patterns — grain that turns at 90-degrees — it has a moderate blunting effect on blades. Screw, glue and nail holding characteristics are good with birch, but due to its hardness, pre-drilling is sometimes necessary for smaller nails or screws.

Is birch softer than oak?

Birch – Birch can range in color from light yellow to dark brownish red. It’s softer than red oak, but is still a strong wood.

Is birch a hard or soft wood?

Birch is a native hardwood that comes from the genus Betula. There are over a dozen species of birch trees native to North America, but the most common are white birch, yellow birch, and black birch. Yellow birch and white birch are the two most commonly found in woodworking.

What Wood is similar to knotty Alder?

Knotty Alder Wood Cabinets. Knotty Alder is chosen for its rustic, informal appearance. Knots vary in size and distribution and include tight, sound knots as well as rustic, open and split knots. Alder is a smooth hardwood with color and graining similar to Cherry ranging from a light honey color to a reddish-brown hue.

Where is alder wood from?

Alder wood chips are made from alder trees, which belong to the birch family. Birch trees grow mostly in northern climes with a few growing as far south as South America.

What is alder wood?

Alder is a hardwood that is often used to make furniture. Alder is often used as a face-frame material on birch plywood cabinets. Alder’s resemblance to birch hardwood – at half the price – makes it an acceptable substitution. For this reason, birch cabinets are among the most affordable of all cabinets.

What is an alder tree?

Physical description. An alder may be distinguished from a birch tree by its usually stalked winter buds and by conelike structures that remain on the branches after the small winged