Lacquered Furniture? Then wood frame construction with MDF panels is probably the correct choice.

 

“Is that a crack?” About once a week, I am asked this question. Some of the times, its about furniture which has been purchased elsewhere. Other times its about our own furniture. It might have been custom made or simply the customer purchased it from from a moving sale.  Some pieces might have traveled the globe and eventually landed in a dry climate – a once beautiful stable piece, is now turning into a cracking, splitting mess.  But rest assured, at least once a week, I am asked this question.

Solid wood/old wood vs. veneer and composites

Solid wood furniture is strong, long lasting and can be re-sanded, re-finished and re-stained for years to come. That’s the good news. The bad news is, this comes at a price. Since wood is a natural, living, breathing material, it therefore has a tendency to swell / shrink, warp and/or  crack as it ages, in relation to environmental changes in temperature and humidity.  In door environments, in particular modern homes where dry electric heat is used, will accelerate this process.  If the furniture is painted or lacquered, this presents an even bigger problem as the lacquer covering the outer surface will crack (often badly) when the wood underneath expands and contracts.

Reclaimed wood waiting to be used in furniture making

One way furniture makers attempt to compensate for this by using aged wood and reclaimed wood. While all wood, including old wood continues to breathe and change,  unlike new wood, old wood has (theoretically) already reached its critical drying point over many, many years. Unfortunately access to reclaimed wood depends on the supply of old wood (often from buildings) which may not always be available in large quantities. Aged wood may also have a certain amount of dents, nicks and other characteristics that come along with age. And because its still real wood, this means it will still breath and change to some extent.

A second method of compensation is by using air dried or kiln-dried wood. Air dried wood, which has been exposed to outside air for extended periods of time, is often harder, though tends to have a higher moisture content and may take months or even years to dry. Kiln dried wood can be ready to use in under a month, but is softer as the artificial heating process stops the wood from naturally hardening any further.  The heating process may also cause defects in the wood such as the “honey comb effect.”  Unfortunately many smaller factories do not have kilns as the process is costly and requires specialized technical expertise. Even large modern factories shipping 200 containers a month may find running their kilns to be expensive and technical. Therefore because Kiln dried wood must be either pre-purchased or sent out for drying, air drying is the most common method in use for smaller workshops.

Stacks of "burlwood" veneer ready for use in furniture making

The third and most common method today is the use of wood veneers and composite woods. A veneer is a thin sheet of wood affixed to a underlying layer of plywood, pressboard or MDF (medium density fiberboard consists of  finely ground wood particles bound together with a resin). Other composites are like thin layers of wood, sandwiched together for extra durability. While a common perception is that these materials are weaker and less costly, in many cases composites may cost as much as solid wood, and even be heavier and stronger. If the veneer is relatively thick, it can even be re-sanded and refinished in the future as well. Good quality veneers and composite “man made” woods are also chemically dried and treated and thus extremely stable. Generally if treated properly, venners will not expand, contract or buckle in relation to the climate or humidity.

A "pickled finish" applied to both a veneer and solid wood. Can you tell the difference?

In many cases, the average person cannot tell the difference between solid wood and a veneer. For this reason much of what’s available on the market today is in fact made from veneers and composite woods. Unfortunately because there is a stigma attached to veneers with many people believing a veneer is inferior to solid wood, manufacturers often advertise their furniture as being solid wood, when in fact its actually “solid wood veneer” – a closer look at the fine print will often reveal this.

Splitting & cracking vs expansion & contraction.

Cracking is a side effect of solid wood that is either not properly dried or simply not dry enough relative to its environment.  As the wood expands or contracts according to its environment, the movement gradually builds pressure, which in turn stresses the joinery. Cracks and splits then begin to occur allowing the wood to release this built up tension.

Over the years, Chinese joinery developed a method for wood to both expand and contract without stressing the wood or joints, through a technique called “floating panel construction.” In dry climates, the “floating” wood panel will contract in the frame, without splitting or cracking. Alternately, in moist climates, this same “floating panel” will expand without stressing the joints and frame.

Floating panel construction

This is an important distinction, as one is deliberately engineered (expansion/contraction) where as the other is accidental (splitting/cracking). About 50% of the time, the piece in question is in fact not cracking but rather contracting. Unfortunately many people don’t see the difference. A contraction is normal if the home / climate is dry. Rest assured this means the floating panel technique is properly doing its job. The alternative is cracking and as we can see,  the results are not pretty.

Normal: A floating panel on the top of a desk, properly doing its job. Only a bit of stain is required as a touch-up.	Problem: A major crack in the wood requiring repairs.

Making the right decision:

If your furniture is to be painted or lacquered, then composite woods like MDF are generally the best choice, as solid wood construction will likely cause major problems over time (lacquer is extremely stable ,but because the wood underneath is not, cracks and splits will occur in the lacquer as the underlying material shifts and contracts). Unless you plan to strip the furniture down and refinish it completely years down the road, you best choice is to use composites and veneers.

This cabinet is best made with composites like MDF to protect the overlying lacquer from splitting or shifting.

If your furniture is to be stained and (with the wood grain visible), then veneers are preferable for any panels and faces (places which are most likely to expand or contract).

This cabinet is best made from veneers or kiln dried wood to prevent cracking.

Solid wood such as air-dried/kiln dried or reclaimed wood,  is also a choice, however you must be able to accept gaps caused in floating panel construction and the potential for cracking / splitting.

This cabinet which is intended to appear as if it were an antique, must be made from 100% solid reclaimed wood.

A bit of luck?

When problems occur, sometimes the issue is joinery related. Other times improper use of wood glue might play a role. And sometimes? Well, sometimes  it simply comes down to a bit of luck. In the case of hand made furniture, the construction techniques used may have been employed for hundreds of years.  Sometimes this creates challenges not foreseen when such techniques were invented. Like modern homes with air conditioning and dry central heating, children likely to spill soft drinks everywhere and heavy TV sets sitting on the top.

Bad luck? Two identical desk, were each constructed at the same time, by the same carpenter, from 100% solid wood reclaimed from antique doors panels. One desk cracked within a week inside a heated home. The 2nd desk remained pristine with no cracks whatsoever despite modern dry heating and other changes in the home environment.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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2. Restoring a Chinese mahjong table with a bit of pyrotechnics!
3. A to Z: Restoring chinese wood carvings, wooden screens and carved architectural elements.

The Chinese have always prized hardwoods for their dense grain, durability and rich color. But with Beijing being located in the north of China, one must wonder where all those tropical hardwoods being made into classical Chinese furniture today come from? Well, in most cases the answer is the Dong Ba Timber Market or “Dōngbà  mùcái Shìchǎng” (东坝 木材 市场) in Chinese. (Website: http://www.cbdwood.com/)
View Map

Located just on the outskirts of Beijing (outside the 4th ring road on Dong Wei Road), Dong Ba is a large clustering of timber merchants, wood merchants and hard wood suppliers selling lumber and logs reclaimed wood to the nearby furniture  and decorating industry. Obviously this is not a place for the “retail buyer” and for those outside of the furniture industry a visit would be boring a best. But for the carpenter, furniture designer or anyone else interested in digging down deep into the depths of the classical furniture industry in China, Dong Ba makes for a fascinating few hours.

There is a staggering number of imported hardwoods for sale here, ranging from sandalwood to rosewood to ebony, brought in from far reaching places across the globe including Brazil, Laos, Vietnam and West Africa.

The ENORMOUS conference table is made from a single section of a tree – the question is, where did this tree originally come from and was it illegally logged? Your guess is as good as mine…

More commonly used woods such as imported American mahogany, maple, cherry, birch and walnut are plentiful here.

Dongba Market Timber Merchant Directory

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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In order to match the color of the original wood, the replacement panel must be lightened. To darken a piece there are several methods the most common one being a coat of stain or varnish.  However, in this case the issue is the opposite: the wood here is too dark to match the base color of the original material. So how does one lighten the color of wood? By applying an alcohol based solution and some heat, the color of the wood will essentially lighten thus matching the color of the original color.

The end result would look something like this table sold by EMWA  Furniture in Australia.

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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Vein Ebony, Thailand Hua li, Vietnam Huang hua li, Chicken Wing Wood, Black Sour Branch, Big leaf tan 

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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3. Guide to Chinese Furniture – Part 1) What is considered an antique?

Click here to listen to Chinese

• Latin: Tectona grandis (IE true teak).
• African name: Baikiaea Plurijuga (Rhodesian Teak)
• Other trade names: Burma teak, Rangoon teak, moulmein teak, gia thi, jati sak, kyun, mai sak and rosawa.

Teakwood is an average hardness wood from the Verbenaceae family, found in various parts of southern China, Southeast Asia (Burma/Thailand) and India, though it is also grown in plantations in the Philippines, Boliva and Indonesia. Teak is also is found in Africa in places like Zambia and Zimbabwe. It grows in forests at times though not always, near the coast, and is actually not a rain forest wood, despite this common perception. At present, much of the teak coming out today is from Burma, which has a long history of Teakwood trading going back as far as the 14th century and today supplies more then 75% of the worlds teak. The name “teak” comes from the Malayan word “tekka.”

The tree itself, has a straight, but often buttressed stem, a spreading crown, and four-sided branch lets with large quadrangular pithes. The leaves resemble those of the tobacco plants in shape. The branches terminate in small white flowers and the sapwood white. The unseasoned wood has a pleasant and strong aromatic fragrance and a beautiful golden-yellow color, which on seasoning darkens into brown, mottled with darker streaks. The wood is generally straight grained (though at times can also be wavy) and extremely dense, with a square foot of the wood weighing 40 pounds. Its often said to be resistant to termites as well as impervious to splitting, buckling, or rot due to its high content of oils and resinous materials. Of course the downside to this when making furniture, is that Teak can be particularly difficult to glue, because of its oily nature as the natural oils in the wood interfere with a glue’s ability to bond. Its density along with naturally occurring silicon in the wood also makes it blunt tools faster then many other woods.

Teak when used in furniture construction (and thus to be considered during the materials selection process is) generally graded according to the quality and flawlessness of the wood.

1. Zero Defect (Grade A)
   No sap wood, knots, or pin holes and the color and grain are very uniform, without any natural deep black highlighting the grain. Natural sheen to the wood as opposed to a shine. No watermarks.
2. Natural (Grade A and B)
   No sap wood, pinholes or knots, and the color is uniform. Good grain, though some natural black highlighting the grain is allowed. Natural sheen though some shine as well.
3. Rustic: (Grade C)
   Considered to be low grade teak. Sapwood. May be manipulated with chemicals or stains to alter its appearance to look like a sightly higher grade. Visible dark heavy grain.

Because the wood contains naturally occurring elements of rubber and oil, Teak wood is extremely durable and in places like India and in Burma, Teak beams have been known to last in palaces and temples of more than 1,000 years old. Sunken ships in the Atlantic carrying teak timber have been salvage 75 years later only to discover that even after being submerged for close to a century in the Atlantic, the timber remains in perfect condition, with the original saw and hammer marks still visible. Very impressive! A highly prized material, ancient Burmese and Thai royalty considered Teak to be a royal tree. Maybe one reason was because Teak takes more the 120 years to reach maturity from the seedling stage.

Chinese style teak table

Teak has been and continues to be used in a range of applications from furniture, to flooring to shipbuilding. An unusual characteristic of Teak is when it comes into direct contact with iron, the oil in the wood acts as a preservative for the iron (and thus its use in shipbuilding – virtually every passenger liner ever built had a deck made from teak.)

In Chinese furniture, Teak was often seen in western style “colonial Shanghai style” and art deco pieces especially during the 1920′ies and 30′ies. After the first colonizers reached Burma in the early as the 1820’s, furniture ranging from Victorian style furniture to British campaign style to art deco style began coming out of the region and was popular in cosmopolitan cities in Asia. Today Teakwood sculptures, Teak garden furniture, recycled Teak furniture and Teak outdoor furniture are strong sellers, primarily due to the durability of Teak wood. Indonesia and Thailand are major sources for Teak wood furniture.

More info on Teak wood

• History Of Teak Wood
• Wood Properties of Teak

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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1. Trend Guide: Rustic furniture made from reclaimed elm and other salvaged woods
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3. Guide to Chinese Furniture – Part 1) What is considered an antique?

Reclaimed & salvaged materials are environmentally friendly in that there are no new trees cut down to make the piece. Sources of wood may be old railroad ties, beams from old houses that have been demolished or even old doors. Old elm tends to be a favorite as Elm in fairly common in China. Pine is also an option as well. Other woods are also used like cypress, walnut or beech though these woods are much less common and not available in large quantities.

Since the material has been aged it tends to be more stable then new wood (which must otherwise be kiln dried and chemically treated before it can be made to be stable). In essence, pieces created from salvaged materials are antique in a very unusual way – as the materials themselves have their own story, rather then the finished piece. Finishes are less of an issue to as rather then spend time carefully creating the right distressed finish, the focus is on the already distressed natural appearance of the wood. Construction is typically using the traditional methods of tongue/groove and Chinese joinery.Reclaimed wood furniture tends to fall within either one of following three classifications:

1. Antique / Vintage: Often these are antique farm items which have simply been given a clean up. In other cases they have been stripped down and their original finish removed. Often traces of the original finish & color remain giving each piece its own unique “hue.”
   1. 
2. Salvaged & Rebuilt: Old doors converted into tables tops with bases added are a good example of this. The prime element here is that a good portion of the piece is in fact antique and can be distinguished as so.
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3. New designs from old materials: These are basically new pieces built with primarily reclaimed materials and its for this reason that the line between salvaged and new can become a bit blurry. The dining table below from ACF China Co as well as the “Haider Natural” Dining Furniture from Horchow Collection & Four Hands are good example of this. The design on the Horchow table has clearly been updated for the western buyer as the bottom stretcher would not an original feature on a Chinese type of table.
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So, where is it reclaimed wood furniture being sold on the web? What are the popular looks?

Here are a few nicer examples:

“Haider Natural” Dining Furniture from Horchow Collection & Four Hands

Reclaimed Elm Table from Neiman Marcus.

Blue Wash Console Table from Wisteria

Reclaimed Elm Doorwood Coffee Table

From the The Olde Good Things Webstore. Looks so similar I wonder if it originally came from us?!

RECLAIMED WOOD FURNITURE from GreenTea Designs

Other nice pieces of reclaimed wood furniture out there?

Share them with us! Send them in or post the links here…

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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Here is a sample of some of the articals:

• The Atanomy of A Wood Finish
  These 3 basic finish steps apply to all finishes from the most basic wax or oil finish
  to high-tec coatings and even painting the exterior of a house or a room wall.
• COLOR THEORY for the Woodworker & Furniture Finisher
  Mixing Stains or Dyes & Color Computer Instructions.
• Glossary of Finishing Terms
  Woodfinishing Lingo
• Stripping Wood Furniture
  Guidelines for stripping wood furniture and other fine wood surfaces.
• Lacquer Finishing Check List
  Guidelines for spray finishing with Nitrocellulose Lacquer.
• Lacquer Retarder & Flash Control
  Control of Lacquer Moisture Blushing, or Overspray, and Orange-Peel problems.
• LACQUER FINISHING PROBLEMS self help TROUBLE SHOOTING
  Common nitrocellulose lacquer finishing problems defined; with causes & remedies.
• Finishing Schedule for KITCHEN CABINETS
  Spray Schedule for Durability with Nitrocellulose Lacquer
• WAX THE PERFECT PROTECTION FOR FURNITURE?
  Text from from Wood Magazine article on the proper maintenance of furniture.
• ” HOT STUFF ” Instant Glues & Solving Clogged Spouts
  How to get the most from Cyanoacrylate ” Hot Stuff “. Do’s & Dont’s — How To Use.
  Typical uses for Cyanoacrylate Instant Glues
• ANILINE DYE
  ANILINE DYE Information and Application Guidelines.
• LIMING, a Limed Wood Finish also known as Pickled or “Whitewash”
  This is a traditional wax finish for decorative furniture and wood surfaces
• SHELLAC FLAKE, Mixing and Application Information
• A guide to FRENCH POLISHING with Shellac -
• ROTTENSTONE & PUMICE for Finish Rubbing Techniques for traditional rubbing of finishes to satin or high-gloss sheens.

The full text of the articles are here on their site: http://www.mcn.org/a/lib/wfs/articles.html

This content comes from The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. located at http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ For more articles please visit The specialists guide to Chinese antiques. - A unique insiders peek at the world of Chinese antiques & reproductions, Asian culture, exotic decor and oriental-inspired design from the far east. Everything you ever wanted to know!

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