What wood is this?

[Bill Holt]

Several years ago I  was involved with a granite supplier in the Dallas area.  Most of his granite came from Brazil.  There is no telling what kind of wood they used for shipping.

[jasfrank]

Most granite for countertops etc. that is very competitively priced comes from brazil, china and some other foreign countries. If that was where your granite came from its hard telling what species they used for the pallets.

[stav]

Tried for better lighting this morning. As you can see, the wood is pretty straight grained. It is very heavy and strong. It takes to machining pretty well but there is some chip out. This may be due to me taking too heavy a cut though.  Whatever it is, it seems ideal for a work bench.

[alanealane]

They say you get what you pay for but I think you got the good end of the deal here

[Bibliophile 13]

Doesn't look like SYP to my eye. But it does look like some kind of construction lumber, so one of the harder pines.

About that "swoftwood" thing, don't take it too literally. Some "hardwoods" are actually quite soft, whereas some "softwoods" can be fairly hard, especially once they age a few decades and the resins in them crystalize. If you've ever tried to drive a screw into 100-year-old SYP, you know what I'm talking about. The real distinction is that "softwoods" come from conifer trees--evergreens that produce cones. "Hardwoods" come from deciduous trees. So while it's true that the average hardwood is indeed harder than the average softwood, there are lots of exceptions.