You talkin' to me? You talking TO ME? I don't see anyone else here, so you MUST be talkin' to me...
Hey, I don't sweat the petty, I pet the sweaty. Yes, the hardness test for wood is the Janka test....
Not to be confused with Jenga.. which is a favorite game at the ranch:
The test is simple as Eric said - a steel ball and a sample board are put into a press, and the pressure it takes to drive that ball halfway into the wood is calculated. Fiendishly simple.
On the abbreviated list at Wikipedia, Lignum Vitae is rated the hardest at 4,500 pounds of force. I'm sure that somewhere there is the shagbark weasel tree found only on the summit of K2 on Thursdays in May. It may be six times harder, but it's as scarce as hen's teeth. That makes LV he hardest of the most frequently seen hardwoods.
And, the famous balsa wood is waaaaay at the other end, needing only 100 pounds of force. Look at it the wrong way, and you are going to dent it.
Even though you are on holiday, Eric, Gina Weasel wanted to wish you congratulations and send you Barry's best to enjoy on your time off...
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