8 ms·
The Hardest Woods
- pubby 8y agoHere's an interesting read on wood hardness: http://www.woodgears.ca/hardness_test/ http://www.woodgears.ca/hardness_test/ It's pretty amazing how much variability there is between samples of the same species.
- puranjay 8y agoSlight aside, but I love websites like these. They're so reminiscent of the "old" internet. Not filled with ads, pop-ups, and two dozen prompts asking for my email. Loads fast, has useful information, and isn't trying to "game" the search engines with bloated pages.
- cstuder 8y agoYour adblocker probably deceived you: There's both Google Analytics and Google Ads on that page.
- baud147258 8y agoThe ads are not pop-up and they do not interupt the content, since they are only on the side. And they are not visible for most of the page. Edit: I don't disagree with your point, but it's not as bad as say, most news articles. Also I didn't check to see if there was other trackers, in addition to GA. As it stand, it's an ad-supported page that's usable and that's fine.
- donatj 8y agoAdditionally it’s a top ten list where all ten are on the same page, rather than ten pages to make you see more ads.
- tech2 8y agoYou mean something like this: https://i.imgur.com/EoNd3ev.gifv https://i.imgur.com/EoNd3ev.gifv I hate the ones that have permanent non-scrolling header/footer (title and social media buttons generally) taking up a significant fraction of my phone's screen.
- puranjay 8y agoHa! Saw that on Reddit yesterday. Immediately thought of it.
- Memosyne 8y agoWhy do some designers think this is optimal?
- tech2 8y agoThey might not. The product-owners however (in consultation with marketing etc.) combined with word from on-high.
- fermienrico 8y agoI really think that most designers have poor understanding of the confluence of creativity + functionalism + user needs. For every great designer, there are many who do not understand this balance. Combine that with trying to be trendy, aesthetic, flashy in addition to business/marketing objectives (ads, tracking, GDPR); you end up with a design enchilada as exemplified by the GP's link. Does anyone remember Go's rebranding? https://blog.golang.org/go-brand https://blog.golang.org/go-brand Compare that with boring but highly functional Rust Lang's home page and their branding: https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/ https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/ Or even better, check MPFR's page: https://www.mpfr.org/ https://www.mpfr.org/ No bullshit, just content. I might be a minority, but to me aesthetics are not as important as the rest of the public values. Aesthetic aspects of design should follow and not lead in Design. Most people write this off as "non-designey" opinion who doesn't understand design which is not true. I think the Swiss in 1960's nailed aesthetics that don't get in the way, especially in layout (Muller-Brockmann) and typography (Frutiger). These days, in design colleges we have this insane push for retro aesthetics (Brutalism, Vaporware, etc), trying to keep up with current trends as well as increasing pressure for originality. This leads designers to create substandard work in favor of originality. As Paul Rand said, "Don't try to be original. Just try to be good." - This sadly does not work when you're wired to do something different for your senior project as a designer. Designers graduate and create noise thereafter. Furthermore, some of the burden of bad design should also be carried by the expectations from clients. It is not just about designers. Edit: I just realized, I apologize how off-topic this discussion is to the original post.
- retSava 8y agoI remember when I was about to show off "THE INTERNET" to my mom when I was a kid. Thinking, what can I show, I wanted to show that you can find anything there! So I just searched for the first thing that sprung to mind and went there. A page dedicated to the sounds guinea pigs do. Very impressive demo, I would say.
- 13of40 8y agoNowadays a google query for "sounds guinea pigs do" gets 8.6 million hits, and they seem decently on target all the way through page 3.
- newsbinator 8y agoHardest listed = Quebracho 4,570 lbf (20,340 N) From the Spanish “quebrar hacha,” which literally means “axe breaker.” Aptly named, wood in the Schinopsis genus is among the heaviest and hardest in the world.
- cyberferret 8y agoI built an acoustic guitar a couple of years ago. The wood I chose for the fretboard was Gidgee. Boy, by the time I had shaped and sanded the radius and hand cut the fret slots in, my (desk bound software developer) arms were non functional to the extent I couldn’t even hold my phone up to my ears to make a call! It was only after the fact that the head luthier told me that Gidgee was one of the hardest woods around, and that sanding the radius into the wood was akin to sanding set concrete.
- pvaldes 8y agoAcacia produce several chemical defenses. The dust of many species of fabaceae is poisonous if inhalated. Acacia is probably in that group also. All the plant is poisonous, specially the seeds. Maybe, and I'm saying maybe, you weren't just tired.
- strainer 8y agoSubstances which can poison at certain concentrations are common in plants and even in crops, but animals are evolved to tolerate appropriate amounts with no detectable lasting effects. Consider most or all medicinal substances - very often first discovered in plants - can poison at wrong dosage. Without any specific references to inform your warning, I suspect that you have mistaken benign concentrations of ubiquitous substances - plant alkaloids perhaps, as general hazard to health.
- thfuran 8y agoAnd many plants are poisonous at readily-achievable accidental exposure levels. So without any specific references to inform your dismissal, I suspect that you have mistaken specific cases for a general truth.
- strainer 8y ago> And many plants are poisonous at readily-achievable accidental exposure levels. Of course because there are many many plants. The wood Gidgee - which "maybe maybe" poisoned someone in an afternoons exposure - is not known to be "poisonous" to the wood-database: "Allergies/Toxicity: Besides the standard health risks associated with any type of wood dust, no further health reactions have been associated with Gidgee. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information." https://www.wood-database.com/gidgee/ https://www.wood-database.com/gidgee/
- chrisweekly 8y agoShackleton's _Endurance_ was one of the strongest ships ever built, thanks in part to its being sheathed in "greenheart"[1] which is pretty remarkable stuff. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorocardium_rodiei https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorocardium_rodiei Edit to note: apparently greenheart isn't quite as high on the Janka hardness scale as the top 10 listed in the OP's link, but its near-imperviousness to the harsh arctic marine environment still makes it an amazing natural material.
- halbritt 8y agoMarine lumber generally isn't selected for hardness. Generally speaking, rot resistance is the most desirable characteristic. Apparently greenheart is superior to most other wood in this regard. Teak has traditionally been used for this reason as well, but is getting expensive. Black locust is starting to become popular as well. Apparently greenheart is relatively rare and prone to exploding when milling, however.
- I_complete_me 8y agoI'm open to correction on this but as far as I recall, the timber used to support some of the buildings in Venice is alder -- a relatively weak wood but with good rot resistance.
- aylmao 8y agoFor a minute I thought it said "The Hardest Words" and was quite confused reading through it.
- sitkack 8y agoIn Borneo, the much sought after Ironwood is on the path to extinction. It grows so slowly, 0.5 cm per year, that it isn't replanted after harvesting (poaching). The most sought after trees are hundreds of years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusideroxylon_zwageri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusideroxylon_zwageri
- nathancahill 8y agoInteresting. We have a different ironwood in northern Mexico, Olneya tesota. They are tiny in comparison, only used for little wood carvings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olneya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olneya
- opwieurposiu 8y agoLignum Vitae has a self-lubricating resin that makes it perfect for hydroelectic turbine bearings. https://www.hydroworld.com/articles/hr/print/volume-32/issue-4/cover-story/bearings---seals--wood-makes-a-comeback-for-hydroelectric-turbin.html https://www.hydroworld.com/articles/hr/print/volume-32/issue...
- gweinberg 8y agoAt the other end of the scale are the 10 softest woods https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/top-ten-softest-woods/ https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/top-ten-softest-...
- bennettfeely 8y agoDo they float?
- Salamat 8y agoI visited abkhazia and was told they have wood that is very hard it does not float in water. Could not verify that.
- Someone 8y agoNitpick: they likely are highly correlated, but hard woods do not have to have high density. Looking at https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/top-ten-heaviest-woods/ https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/top-ten-heaviest..., the entire top 10 is heavier than water (#10 is almost 20% heavier; #1 over 35%)
- eco 8y agoYeah, Lignum Vitae doesn't float. This Old House has a clip showing this off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI39sMIy6mE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI39sMIy6mE
- msds 8y agoI've been doing a little wood turning lately, and have developed a deep love of exotic hardwoods. Such a guilty pleasure... Really good ebony is an amazing material to work with. Wood Database is a godsend for getting quality information on interesting woods, but trying to verify a vendor's claims about the identity and source of any given wood is hard!
- module0000 8y agoI once did tech-type work for a lumber importer in the US. They were between #5 and #1 in terms of market share - ie they were big and all of us have likely bought lumber sourced from them at some point up the chain. One of the more interesting aspects of the business I learned there involved customs, ports of origin, and bribes. The difference between sustainable and/or organically sourced lumber has nothing to do with the lumber itself: it's about the bribe to the harbormaster. Can't get customs to release your barges of Russian birch? No problem, pay him/her enough and it's stamped as whatever you like it to be. You mentioned it was hard to verify the vendor's claims about the identity and source of a given wood, and that old job came to mind. I imagine in the supply chain, once far enough down, the vendor might genuinely believe they are selling you wood XYZ, because the wholesaler told them it was XYZ...but in reality, it all goes back to whatever they paid the harbormaster to stamp the export as. PS: It's not that the harbormaster is the kingpin in this corruption. They are more like pawns...it was always presented to me as "the way business is done, since way back, everywhere". Just seems to be an accepted bit of dishonesty that everyone involved participates in and tolerates to a degree. edit: typos
- Lukeas14 8y agoSome of the cheapest exotic wood you can buy is from estate sales for this reason. The person running the sale can look up model numbers and prices for tools they know nothing about. But even one familiar with hardwoods will have a tough time accurately and efficiently labelling a stack of boards covered in dust, wax and bleached by the sun. Obviously some exotic wood is easy to identify (ex. zebrawood) but most look like any other wood after sitting in a garage for years and are usually sold as such.
- vichu 8y agoThis reminded me of a YouTube channel where a maker crafts knives out of various substances (including one made from Lignum Vitae [0]). He recently began measuring the Mohs' hardness of the different knives he makes - though I'm not sure exactly at which video that starts. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKH63_r0OCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKH63_r0OCA
- Isamu 8y agoHey, thanks for sharing this - I thought for sure Lignum Vitae would be #1. There are a few I have never heard of - goes to show how antiquated my knowledge is. I guess a global market provides new substitutes as some hardwoods become endangered or expensive.
- emmanueloga_ 8y agoTIL! The word "Quebracho" is commonly used in slang in Argentina (it is also the name of a political group), but it never occurred to me (!) the connection with "Quebrar Hacha" (break-axe). As with other natural resources of Latin America, it was subject to exploitation from developed countries [2], causing harm to Native American people and the ecosystem. In the book "The open veins of Latin America", Galeano explains the interesting fact that the current poorest areas of Latin America are the ones that used to be richer in natural resources, including "the devastated quebracho forests of northern Argentina and Paraguay". 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebracho_(group) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebracho_(group) 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebracho_tree#Quebracho_exploitation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebracho_tree#Quebracho_explo... 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Veins_of_Latin_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Veins_of_Latin_America
- dandare 8y agoNo hardwood trees are native Europe? Interesting.