Only by understanding the "wood properties" of wood can we design classic mahogany furniture. What is "woodiness"? To sum up, it mainly refers to the shrinkage rate, strength and texture of wood. These aspects are related to the service life, functionality and aesthetics of the furniture, etc., and should not be underestimated.
There are many types of mahogany wood, and their structures are relatively complex. In addition to their unique properties, each wood has its own particularities. Taking the shrinkage rate as an example, different woods have different shrinkage rates; even for the same wood, the transverse shrinkage rate and the longitudinal shrinkage rate are also different. Generally speaking, the transverse shrinkage rate is large and the longitudinal shrinkage rate is small. If you understand these characteristics of wood, you can do it just right when leaving expansion joints.
For example, when designing a panel for a raised desk, since there are boards with horizontal and vertical grains around the panel, it is necessary to consider the expansion joints around the panels due to their different shrinkage rates. Size should vary slightly. If treated indiscriminately, problems will definitely arise under the natural laws of thermal expansion and contraction.
Strength should also be considered. Generally speaking, the stress of straight-grained wood is greater than that of horizontal-grained wood. If you take a piece of undried wood and expose it to the sun, the straight grained wood will never warp, while the horizontal grained wood will warp into an arc. Therefore, wood with horizontal grains is generally used for panels and other parts; wood with vertical grains is mostly used for parts with high stress, such as legs and feet. If this rule is violated, the firmness of whether it is a sofa, a table or a chair will be difficult to guarantee.
When carpenters are working, after sawing a piece of wood or planing a plank, they often say: "This wood has great strength." That is to say, this piece of wood has great deformation and twisting force, and it can be made After the finished product is finished, it will undergo relatively drastic changes when encountering changes in cold, hot, dry, and wet environments, such as big cracks, big twists, big expansion, and big shrinkage. Sometimes the changes that occur are simply out of shape, such as the original square The wooden square can be twisted into a twist shape and turned into several turns.
When carpenters encounter this kind of wood, they must be extra careful when working. They must find ways to strengthen it, control it, and cage it to prevent it from changing drastically. If you meet a wood with a low temperament, that is, a wood with a calmer and gentler personality, work will be easier and you don't have to worry so much. The finished product will also change, but the changes and distortions will not be particularly severe.
Which wood has greater properties and which wood has less properties? The old carpenter has handled many types of wood and knows it well. For example, oak, ash, and colored wood (maple) are all highly toxic woods. And red pine, white pine, basswood, and catalpa wood are considered to be less durable woods. Among southern wood species, nanmu and fir have low potency, while beech and longan wood have high potency. Rosewood has greater acid branch resistance, while red sandalwood and rosewood have relatively low resistance.
Old carpenters know how to distinguish, and also know how to make, and can know the right proportion. However, greatness and smallness are relative terms and exist in comparison. As long as it is wood, it will expand and contract with heat, and it will also expand with moisture and shrink with dryness. A 3-5 mm expansion joint must be left on the panels of classical furniture to prevent the furniture from cracking, swelling and deformation, so that it can calmly cope with changes in natural temperature and humidity during use.
Since wood has sex, it is very important to remove the sex before making. There are many ways to remove sex, but they can be roughly divided into three types:
One is "roasting". That is to put logs, boards or square materials into the baking room for steaming and baking. In the early years, the baking houses mainly burned leaves, sawdust, branches, and chopped firewood; later, they burned coal and oil, and even more advanced, they used electric heating to bake, which was similar to an electric oven. It's just that it's not the box that's burning the wood, but the house. Wood-baking takes a longer time, unlike baking bread, which will be cooked in a few minutes or ten minutes. In the early years, wood was roasted for three to five days, or even a week, slowly roasted and smoked over a dark fire. The temperature cannot be too high and there should be no open flame, otherwise the wood will catch fire and turn into charcoal. After roasting, a lot of the wood's properties are removed, making it easier for carpenters to use and operate.
The second is "blowing". The essence of blowing is to let the wind blow, which can also be called the natural drying process. This takes three to five months or even half a year or a year to stack the boards and squares one by one and stack them neatly. Small wooden strips should be used between each layer of boards and squares as intervals to facilitate Ventilated and breathable.
A large gap should be left between stacks to allow wind to escape. Boards and squares are generally stacked in a shaded and ventilated place to avoid sudden deterioration of the wood due to sunlight exposure. After palletizing, the top should be pressed with heavy objects, such as stones, steel, logs, etc. The heavier the better. After natural wind, rain, sun, snow, drying and getting wet, wet and drying, the wood becomes less and less elastic. Therefore, the older the wood, the less elastic it is and the easier it is to make and take care of.
The third one is "bubble". Just throw the logs or boards and cubes into the water and soak them. Soak it for a week, two weeks, or even a month, pick it up and stack it in the natural air-drying method, and then use it after it is completely air-dried. Or soak it and then send it to the oven for smoking. There is another old way to speed up the detoxification. This is to dig a hole and drain it, add lime or alkali, and use lime water and alkaline water to soak the wood. This way the soaking time can be greatly shortened. , soak it for two or three days, then take it out, air-dry it, or send it to the baking room.
In short, the way to detoxify wood is to toss it back and forth, soak and bake, bake and soak, wet and dry, dry and wet. The more times you toss, the less detoxified the wood is. It's quite a bit like "steel is tempered a hundred times". It's also like the quenching of steel, which burns red and is suddenly plunged into cold water. Tempered steel is harder, and detoxified wood is more supple.
The de-denatured wood is more obedient and smoother in the hands of carpenters. After being made into furniture, the rate of thermal expansion and contraction is greatly reduced. In recent years, there has been a batch of antique-style furniture made from old wood. The rafts and beams of ordinary people's homes that are decades or even centuries old have been broken into boards to make furniture. Their properties are stable and rarely change. When you buy new furniture made from old wood, you don’t have to worry about the wood losing its temper.
At Chunxiao Wood Art, you will learn more than just furniture, but more of a mahogany home culture and the charm of life it brings. Spread the mahogany culture and create a quality home life. We understand life and understand you better!