What’s the difference between solid wood, real wood veneer and manufactured woods?

Real wood, all wood, simulated wood, you’ve heard it all, but what does it mean? What is the difference between them, and do you really want them in your furniture? We’ll look at three properties that show the differences. First let’s look at the definitions.

Solid wood – This is wood straight from the tree. Cut into boards, planed smooth and turned into furniture.

Plywood veneer – This is made by alternating thin sheets of wood at 90 degrees. Furniture quality wood veneer has few or no voids in the inner sheets and the outer sheets can be faced with any species of wood.

Manufactured woods – This is manufactured from wood chips or wood dust, combined with adhesives then pressed together into sheets.

So now that we’ve identified the materials, let’s look at how they differ.

Wood movement
· Plywood and manufactured woods are both very stable. While they do change in size it is very minimal due to the cross grain / adhesive construction.
· Solid wood is the most prone to seasonal movement. It varies between species but it is manageable.

Ability to hold fasteners
· The grain structure of solid wood allows the fasteners to bite and hold well.
· Plywood holds fasteners well across its face, but not on edge. The layers of wood don’t provide the continuous grain for the fasteners to grab.
· Due to the absence of grain in manufactured wood it has poor holding power both on the face and its edge.

Strength
· Due to the alternating grain in plywood it is very strong and is less likely to deflect.
· Solid wood also tends to be strong, but will bend more than veneer.
· Manufactured wood has minimal strength. It is very likely to bend or break when put under loads, like a shelf full of books.

Now that you know more about these materials, you can see why quality furniture is made with solid wood and veneers, but not with manufactured woods

How Are Wooden Kayaks Made?

I am frequently asked how wooden kayaks are made. It is a simple process, time consuming but simple. So here we go – in a nutshell.

I’m going to discuss how strip built boats are built. As the name suggests, you start with ¾” wide, ¼” thick cedar strips. Cedar is used because it is light weight and flexible.

Start by setting up a strong back and the kayak forms. The easiest way to explain those is the strong back is the spine, and the forms are the ribs. Setting them up carefully will ensure that you kayak will have smooth lines.

It is time to start striping your boat. Start with a full length strip; lay it carefully along where the hull and deck will meet.and staple it to the forms. Now lay a strip on the opposite side of the boat. From here you apply a strip on one side then the other. The strips are glued together with yellow glue, and stapled in place. This goes on until the entire hull is striped.

Next you strip the hull. The important thing to remember is that the strips between the hull and deck are not glued together at this point. The deck is filled in just like the hull with some adjustments for the cockpit.

Once the strips are all laid and the glue is dry, it’s time to smooth out your boat. The first step is to remove all the staples (yep, all of them). Next you can plane, file and sand the exterior of the boat smooth. Split the boat and smooth the interior as well. Now using fiberglass cloth and resin, coat the exterior of both halves and when that is dry and smooth, repeat on the interior.

Now the two halves are brought together with 2” fiberglass tape, inside and out. After multiple coats of resin the boat is sanded smooth and then covered with multiple coats of spar varnish. The final step is taking your boat to the nearest body of water, sliding in and going for the first of many paddles. I supposed I should mention that while this abbreviated how to, took a few paragraphs, plan on spending 200 plus hours, or five plus months into the creation of your boat.