How to get Hardwood in Stardew Valley
Early on in Stardew Valley, the standard wood you find by chopping down trees will serve you well. However, there will come a point where you're going to need to find Hardwood, which is much more involved. When the game was released, there were very few locations where you could find this valuable item, but thanks to a few updates over the years, it's improved.
A lot of the late-game crafting recipes, like the Rain Totem and Worm Bin, require Hardwood. Plenty of quests also need you to use the valuable resource to complete making it important to remember not to give any away (only Robin likes it anyway), and to use it sparingly.
How to harvest Hardwood
Click to enlargeThere are a few different ways of harvesting the valuable resource, which are:
- Mahogany Trees with an axe
- Large Stumps with a Copper Axe
- Large Logs with a Steel Axe
It is also possible for normal trees to drop the resource. However, you will first need to unlock the Lumberjack profession at level 10 and ensure you opt for the Forester profession at level 5.
Where to harvest Hardwood
I’ve outlined the method above, and that will help you once you’ve found where to harvest Hardwood, so here are the different locations to find the aforementioned sources of Hardwood:
| Source | Amount | Location |
| Large Logs (will not reappear) | 8 Hardwood / 10 with Forester profession |
|
| Large Stump (respawn daily) | 2 Hardwood |
|
Mahogany Trees are a bit different because you can plant these yourself, offering a more controlled supply of the resource. The tree yields between eight and 13 Hardwood.
You can get the seeds for the trees by shaking Mahogany Trees (which can be found on Ginger Island) or by harvesting Large Logs and Large Stumps - which fortunately you’ll already be on the lookout for.
Unfortunately, when planting a Mahogany tree there is only a 60% of growth when fertilised, and unfertilised Mahogany Trees only have a 15% chance of making it.
Alternate Hardwood sources
On top of the above ways of finding Hardwood, there are a few others as well, but these aren't as reliable or consistent:
- Robin may gift you 25 Hardwood at the Feast of the Winter Star
- Woodskip Pond has a chance of producing 5 Hardwood once it reaches 6
Hardwood Crafting Recipes
Click to enlargeI mentioned a few of the uses of Hardwood at the beginning of this guide, but for a comprehensive list of everything that uses Hardwood, check out the table below:
| Item | Materials needed |
| Carved Brazier |
10 Hardwood Coal |
| Cask |
Hardwood Wood |
| Cheese Press |
Copper Bar 10 Hardwood 45 Stone 45 Wood |
| Cork Bobber |
5 Hardwood 10 Slime 10 Wood |
|
Hardwood Fence |
Hardwood |
| Heavy Tapper |
Radioactive Bar 30 Hardwood |
| Hopper |
Iridium Bar Radioactive Bar 10 Hardwood |
| Mini-Obelisk |
3 Gold Bar 20 Solar Essence 30 Hardwood |
| Oil Maker |
Gold Bar 20 Hardwood 50 Slime |
| Ostrich Incubator |
20 Cinder Shard 50 Bone Fragment 50 Hardwood |
| Rain Totem |
Truffle Oil Hardwood 5 Pine Tar |
| Stump Brazier |
Coal 5 Hardwood |
| Warp Totem: Beach |
Hardwood 2 Coral 10 Fiber |
| Warp Totem: Desert |
Coconut 2 Hardwood 4 Iridium Ore |
| Warp Totem: Farm |
Honey Hardwood 20 Fiber |
| Warp Totem: Island |
Dragon Tooth Ginger 5 Hardwood |
| Warp Totem: Mountains |
Iron Bard Hardwood 25 Stone |
| Worm Bin |
Gold Bard Iron Bar 25 Hardwood 50 Fiber |
Quests that require Hardwood
Click to enlargeOn top of making your farm better, there will also be plenty of occasions where Quests will require you to use some of your well-earned Hardwood.
- 5 Hardwood may be required to increase the size of the Fish Pond
- 200 Hardwood is needed to repair the outer hull of Willy’s Boat
- Robin's Project requires 80 Hardwood in exchange for 2,000g as well as the Deluxe Red Double Bed recipe
- Robin's Request needs 10 Hardwood in exchange for 500g and 1 x Friendship Heart
- Woodskip will want 10 Hardwood to increase the size of the Fish Pond
For more Stardew Valley, check out our homepage. Or take a look at our list of the best cosy games to see some recommendations for other relaxing farming sims or other stress-free games to try out. We've also got a full rundown of the 1.6 patch notes here.
