Resources in Stardew Valley are vital to build up your farm and create a viable homestead. The more resources like stone, vegetables, and hay help you when you first start your farm. A resource you want to look out for is hardwood.
You can acquire hardwood in a few ways. The easiest way to grab some is by chopping down to the large stumps using a copper ax. Alternatively, you can grab some by taking care of the large logs you encounter using a steel ax. You can find the stumps on your property until you clear them, but those who have the Forest Farm map can discover some that respawn daily on the west side. There are eight of them, and they respawn daily, providing you with two per item.
The next way to have a hardwood drop is to harvest them from a Woodskip Fish Pond. You can catch Woodfish in the Secret Woods, or by starting with the Forest Farm. You can find them at all times of the year, in any weather condition. They’re difficult to catch, so even if you do have one on your line, you might struggle to attempt to drag it out of the water.
Once you do have it, bring it to your fish pond, and you should be able to spawn a new fish every two days after completing its quest. After you have at least six Woodskip fish in the pond, they have a chance to produce five hardwood materials. These are its required quests:
- 1 Woodskip: 10 Hardwood3 Woodskip: 2 to 3 Common Mushrooms or 2 to 3 Red Mushroom5 Woodskip: 1 Oak Resin or 1 Pine Tar7 Woodskip: 2 Jade or 1 Tea Leaves
Alternatively, for those who the Lumberjack Profession, you have a chance for hardwood to drop when cutting down standard trees.
Utilizing many of these methods to gather up hardwood can make crafting some of the harder to create materials much easier.