edward good wood

For a lot of us a piece of furniture made from solid wood has a reassuring feel about it. “Ah yes, solid wood, none of that cheap veneered stuff.” The term ‘solid wood’ can be comforting, akin to quality. Granted, it is part of what should be good craftsmanship, it does have exceptional advantages but it does have certain disadvantages.

We all should feel pretty bad about deforestation. It is understandable that people become easily disapproving and judgmental of people using solid wood. However one should consider that the energy utilised in converting wood from a raw material to a finished product is minuscule when compared to any other industrial material. When reassurances can be offered as to the sourcing of timber from reputable dealers who are themselves active with the conservation of the world's woods then one can take a more encouraged standpoint.

Some of my favourite woods

Acacia

This superior wood comes from pod-bearing trees and is known for its beautiful grain and rich contrasting colors. In addition to being environmentally friendly, acacia has another unique distinction – it appears to change color and luster in different lighting conditions (ultimate wood party fact: this property is called “chatoyancy”) The wood can morph from a light tan to dark brown – sometimes close to walnut, other times more like rosewood. Acacia is also naturally resinous which makes it waterproof and impervious to stains and odors. A quick hand wash with soapy water and some air-drying and your acacia items are good to go.

Amboyna

Amboyna is a lustrous reddish/gold colored hardwood that is sometimes referred to as Narra. A particular Amboyna I used once carries a special provenance in the world of sustainable forest management, because it came from the very last remaining board known to exist of the very first wood to be sustainably harvested on the Solomon Islands in the early to mid-1990s.  

Ash

Ash stocks are easily replenished and I use thinnings (young trees that are cleared by the forester to allow light to reach the main body of trees and which normally goes to waste) because it gives a further income to the forestry community.

Black Walnut

Somewhere in my furniture I will often inlay a rare sampling of Black Walnut wood into discrete areas that are frequently touched.

This is significant because Native American medicine women discovered through many generations of trial, error and observation that this sampling of Black Walnut wood has medicinal properties that are useful in the prevention and treatment of disease.

It is believed that simply touching this wood will allow the active molecules of the tree to contact the surface of one’s skin, where these molecules (known scientifically as ellagitannins) can be naturally absorbed into the pores.

In recent years a scientific basis for this ancient wisdom has been discovered, and these ellagitannin molecules are now at the leading edge of ongoing cancer research.

Hawthorn

Hawthorn is an extremely rare hardwood that was well known to ancient Greek herbalists, and has been used in Ayurvedic medicine dating back over 5000 years. In North America the bark, root bark, leaves, fresh and dried fruit, together with the nutlet seeds were used as a source of medicine.

Hawthorn gives off natural aroma therapeutic properties that are found to be hypotensive, which means they are helpful in relieving stress. Of the very few vascular plant species left on this planet, the Hawthorn affects one little artery in the heart of man that could honestly be said to be the Achilles heel of mankind.

Hawthorn extracts are used in modern medicine as cardiotonics and also as effective coronary vasodilators.

Sassafras

Sassafras wood is native to North America, although variations of this tree species can be found in different parts of the world.

The word Sassafras comes from an aboriginal people known as the Narragansett, whose home was Long Island Sound. These people used the Sassafras as a source of medicine, as have many eastern tribes since time immemorial.

Sassafras wood produces an aromatic fragrance that is easily absorbed by the body, and produces an overall sense of well-being. This fragrance is very closely related to Myrrh, one of the legendary spices of the ancient world. Sassafras is also used for purification in the Native American tradition of the sweat lodge ceremony.

I often use Sassafras to make pencil trays or drawer components. This allows the aroma therapeutic qualities of the Sassafras to accumulate naturally inside the drawer while it is closed, so that it can be released each time the drawer is pulled open.

Kiri

Kiri wood comes from the fast-growing paulownia tree and is praised not only for its good looks (it features a striking natural grain), but also for being lightweight, strong and durable. Kiri also magically avoids the warping that affects most woods.

what is sustainable timber?

Sustainable timber means that the tree harvested will be replaced by another tree, whether naturally grown or planted. Extraction is compensated for, unlike in the case of most other materials.

‘Sustainability’ is not only about quantity, but also about the ecological quality of the resource base - the forest. ‘Sustainable timber’ means that regardless of the extraction of individual trees, the forest maintains its ecological function as for biodiversity, climate and water cycles.

‘Sustainable’ is also about people. ‘Sustainable timber’ implies that local people are involved in the benefits from the forest. Thereby the forest means value and long-term income in particular to local populations.

why sustainable-managed eco-friendly wood is more expensive for consumers.

Eco-friendly wood is all the rage these days. Companies from Ikea to Homebase require their suppliers of tropical wood to be certified by various organisations like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which aim to ensure wood is harvested in a sustainable and responsible manner. Typically, sustainable managed wood products are more costly for consumers. Why is this wood more expensive?

Sustainable management implies the maintenance of the productivity of the asset base. Thus, in theory, under sustainable forest management, logging should meet the needs of the present without compromising the continuity of the ecosystem and the goods and services that it provides. However, sustainable management implies additional costs on concessionaires, namely lower yield due to low impact harvesting, higher costs resulting from stricter standards, and reduced revenue from a different distribution of costs and revenues over time.

The problem of lower timber yields in the short run under sustainable forest management is offset in the long run by a greater overall volume since the resource is replenished. Under standard forest management, the timber resource is not effectively replenished in a reasonable time frame due to damage to the resource base (the forest) and poor utilisation.

A more difficult problem is the time horizon, or distribution of costs and revenues over time, under sustainable forest management. When rainforest is clear-cut, little time elapses between agreeing to harvest a concession and bringing the timber to market. Conversely, under sustainable forest management, there are substantial initial costs including planning, training, assessment, and inventory. Revenue from the harvest is spread out over a number to years due to harvest restrictions in place to ensure sustainability. When interest rates are high - as they often are in developing countries - sustainable forest management is particularly unattractive as the more drawn out the revenue stream the lower the present value of the harvest.

To address this time horizon problem, either low interest rates are needed (nearly an impossibility because inflation is an exceedingly complex factor in monetary policy) or compensation for concessionaires that participate in such sustainable forest management schemes. Higher compensation tends to come from concessionaires being able to charge a higher price for their sustainable managed wood products.

Some recent studies have suggested that reduced impact logging techniques are more economically feasible than once thought. A study by IMAZON scientists in Paragominas, Brazil found that reduced impact logging raised productivity 30%, reduced waste 78%, reduced total costs 12%, and increased revenue 19%. IMAZON scientists concluded that reduced impact logging techniques could allow a fixed area of the Amazon to be harvested indefinitely to provide the world's wood supply. Illegal loggers undermine the system by avoiding taxes and undercutting prices. Because they don't have legal title to land there is no incentive to harvest forests in a sustainable manner. Increasing forestry organisations that do adhere to national and international standards for timber harvesting are targeting these illicit operators. The American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) recently sponsored a report that condemned illegal logging in the tropics. In the report, the authors found:

• Each year $23 billion dollars of forest products are produced globally from illegally harvested timber.

• Timber of suspicious origin is involved in between 5% and 10% of the logs, timber, and panels traded globally (measured in terms of value).

• If all exports associated with illegally harvested logs were phased out by 2007, international roundwood, timber, and wood panel prices would rise by 19%, 7%, and 16%, respectively, and companies operating legally would earn much more money.

• Without illegal logging, the United States would have exported $4.6 billion more roundwood, sawnwood, and wood panels between 2002 and 2012.

The lesson is there are good reasons that eco-friendly wood is more costly than wood of unknown origin. Chances are, it's worth what you're paying for if you value forests and biological diversity in the tropics

Tree factology

For every 10,000 acorns that an Oak tree produces, only one will become a tree!

The most recently discovered tree specie, is the Wollemi Pine, {Wollemia nobilis}. It was discovered in August 1994, in Wollemi National Park, Australia.

The lightest and softest wood in the world is Balsa. It's average specific gravity averages .16.

The heaviest and the hardest wood in the world is Snakewood. It's specific gravity averages 1.30.

The trees with the largest leaves are Teak. The leaves can be 10 inches - 20 inches long and 7 inches - 14 inches wide.

Empress trees produce 3 to 4 times more oxygen than any other known tree.

The whitest wood in the world is Holly.

The blackest wood in the world is Gabon Ebony.

Not all species of wood floats in water. In order to sink in water the specific gravity of the wood, has to be 1.00 or more. These 17 sink,

African Blackwood,

African Ebony,

Black Ironwood,

Brazilwood,

CocoBolo,

East Indian Satinwood,

Ekki, Greenheart,

IPE, Kingwood,

Lignum Vitae,

Macassar Ebony,

Marblewood,

Satine {Bloodwood},

Snakewood,

Sucupira

White Topped Box.

Bamboo, although often tree like, is actually not a species of tree.

Not all wood that comes from hardwood {flowering} broadleaf trees is hard and wood that comes from softwood {conifers} cone-bearing trees is soft. There are exceptions to this. For instance Balsa and Basswood are hardwoods even though they are extremely soft. The southern pines are softwoods but are moderately hard and much harder than Balsa or Basswood.

The name Ironwood is actually a slang term given to the hardest wood of an area, region or country. There are over 80 species of wood in the world, referred to or having the word Ironwood in them.

The world's tallest living Christmas tree (275 foot) is in the Styx Valley, a tract of ancient forest in Tasmania, Australia.

The only species of wood that can be used for holding liquids {other than acids} is White Oak. This is because the pores are filled with tyloses. This substance does not allow liquids to penetrate it.

Lignin is the substance found in wood that helps determine how hard the wood will be. The more Lignin present, the harder the wood and vice versa, the less present, the softer the wood.

Up until a few years ago, the world's oldest living tree, a Bristlecone Pine, named the Methuselah was in California. It is approximately 4,600 years old. Now there may be at least two trees that are older.

With John White's refined measurement techniques of today, The Lime tree in the Silkwood at Westonbirt Arboretum (Near Tetbury, Gloucester, U.K.) is probably around 6000 years old.

The Fortingall Yew Tree in Glen Lyon, Perthshire, Scotland, might be as much as 9000 years old. The usual way of calculating a trees age by counting the annual rings in the trunk or by carbon dating, are not accurate when it comes to Yews because a Yews trunk tends to hollow with age, while it continues to grow by rooting its branches and wrapping them around itself. There is even documentation of the formation of aerial roots growing inside the hollow trunk. Another reason are Yews have been known to stop growing for long periods of time, {documented 325 years}, thus having no growth rings for that period.

The world's tallest living standing tree, a Redwood, is in Humboldt State Redwood Park California. It is 368 feet {almost 37 stories} tall.

In 1872, William Ferguson, reported a fallen Eucalyptus regnans that was 18 feet in diameter and 435 feet tall thus making it the tallest (or longest) dead tree ever found.

The world's widest tree is the Santa Maria del Tule, an Ahuehuete Cypress, in Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico. The town is named after the tree. It is approximately 178 foot in circumference or approximately 56 foot 8 inches wide. It is over 2000 years old.

The world's slowest growing tree is a White Cedar located in Canada. After 155 years, it grew to a height of 4 inches and weighed only 6/10th of an ounce. The tree can be found on a cliffside in the Canadian Great Lakes area.

The world's largest forest is in northern Russia. It is located between 55 degrees North Latitude and the Arctic Circle { Siberia}. It is a coniferous forest. It covers a total area of 2.7 billion acres.

The world's fastest growing tree is the Empress tree. This tree can grow up to 20 feet the first year and some have been documented growing 12 inches in 21 days!

The tree with the world's largest canopy/crown {spread of its branches}, is the great Banyan tree in the Indian Botanical Garden, Calcutta, India. It has over 1,700 prop supporting roots and dates back to 1787. The canopy/crown has a circumference of 1,350 foot, approximately 430 foot wide, almost 1 1/2 football fields.

The world's largest living tree, and this is because of its volume is the General Sherman Giant Sequoia, located in Sequoia National Park, in California. It weighs a little over 2.7 million pounds. Its largest branch is 6 foot 9 1/2 inches in diameter. It is estimated that it contains 600,000 board foot of lumber. Its champion tree score is 1321 points.

A trees score is determined by adding 3 measurements together, circumference in inches, measured at 4.5 feet above ground level {1 point for each inch}, height in feet {1 point for each foot in height}, and one-fourth of the crown spread. Add together the widest crown spread {nearest foot}, and the narrowest crown spread {nearest foot}, then divide by two to get the average ground spread, then divide by 4.

The town of Flagstaff Arizona was named when On July 4th 1876; lumberjacks stripped the limbs from the tallest Ponderosa Pine and then flew the American flag from it.

The tree that has traveled the farthest distance to be transplanted to date, is a London Plane Tree, nicknamed Plane Ace. It was moved from Belgium and was replanted in the United Kingdom in January 2001. At the time, it was approximately 60 years old and almost 58 foot tall.

The tallest tree to date to be transplanted, is the 30 year old, Betula Pendula {Silver Birch), which was moved from William Garfit's nursery in Cambridge and was replanted at a lifestyle housing development in the south London suburb of Deptford. At the time, it was almost 64 foot tall.

The Copaiba Langsdorfii, a tree that grows in the Amazon, has sap that is so much like diesel fuel, that it can be used as fuel for diesel engines.

If you burn Ceylon Satinwood, the fumes will put humans to sleep and kill canaries.

Purpleheart wood can be made to become a darker shade of purple in two ways. One by placing it in direct sunlight, and this will only darken the color superficially. It can be sanded off very easily. Two by heating it, at say 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 - 12 minutes. This will darken the color, not only on the surface but also throughout the whole piece.

A Balsa tree will start rotting after only 7 years, if not cut.

More than 23,000 different species of trees can be found on Earth.

The world's most massive tree trunk size ever recorded was the Lindsey Creek Coast Redwood tree in California. It was blown down in a storm in 1905. It had a total trunk volume of 90,000 cubic foot and a total mass weight of 3,248 tons, a little short of 6.5 million pounds.

Since the early 1940's, the United States has been planting more trees than it harvests and today, has far more trees than in the 1920's.

The wood species that has the most offensive odor {like rotten cabbage} after it is worked in any way, is Essia.

Some African Baobab trees can store more than 25,000 gallons {in weight, approximately 100 tons} of water in their trunks. Also, some with age have become hollow and have been used as homes. One was even used as a bus stop and could shelter up to 30 people.

Cork trees are stripped of their bark every 10 years or so and will continue to grow for 150 years or more.

The world's sweetest tree is native to West Africa. It is the Serendipity Berry. It is 3000 times sweeter than sucrose.

Rubber trees on the average yield about 4-5 pounds of rubber per year.

The softest American wood is the Corkbark. It's specific gravity averages .28. It is native to Arizona and New Mexico.

The hardest American wood is Black Ironwood. It's specific gravity averages 1.04. It is native to southern Florida.

The world's shortest specie of tree is the Weeping Mulberry. Their height rarely exceeds 4 feet.

The Longleaf Pine, native to the southern part of the United States, does not have heartwood until it is 18 or so years old.

It is often said, that Pink Ivorywood is more rare than diamonds.

Acknowledgements & References:

Know Your Woods, Albert J. Constantine, Jr.

Revised By Harry J. Hobbs

World Woods In Color, William A. Lincoln

Reader's Digest Family Guide To Nature,

Answers To 1001 Questions