Boards of over one hundred and thirty-one grams per cubic decimetre belong at the hard end of the balsa scale. You can tell this density by feel: the board is distinctly stiffer, it will not yield to a fingernail and it resists being bent.
Modellers reach for it for spars, local reinforcement around mountings, floors, and anywhere dowels or screws are seated into the timber and a softer board would simply crumble out around them.
