.. hey, he got it in before passing the 16 year mark.
tedmich, I'm not saying that you are wrong in any way but one thing to consider with wood (or metal) is that hardest is not necessarily the best. Some things need a certain amount of "give" so they won't be brittle or cause other problems. One can also argue about "warmth" and weight which are subjective of course. You may also consider how things are affected by moisture, human and atmospheric, and how things age.
To summarize, as usual, I'm no help here.