I suggest turning to the wood hardness scale. Created in 1906 by Austrian scientist Gabriel Janka, this rating indicates hardness by measuring how much force is needed to push a small steel ball exactly halfway into a piece of wood.
The more the force, the higher the number, and the more resistant the wood is to denting and wear. For example, hickory wood has a Janka rating of 1,820, while Chestnut has a rating of only 540. So, hickory is the more resistant wood, and would be a better flooring choice for say, your kitchen, which gets heavy foot use.
But if you want to add warmth and style to your bedroom, where the issue of wear is not as important, then the chestnut is a good option.
The hardest woods in the world are ebony, lignum vitae and cocobolo, with Janka scores of over 3,000. The Utah state tree, the trembling aspen, has a hardness of only 380, so it’s not much used for construction. But it is useful for many other functions: traditional medicines, animal bedding, snow fences and matches.
But remember: The Janka score is simply another way to evaluate wood, so don’t think that just because a wood has a higher score that it’s superior to those with lower numbers. It all comes down to what you are using the wood for — hard or soft, every tree has a different role. Not unlike the rest of us.
