Wood? Board? Vinyl? What’s all that?
When you walk into a furniture store, you are usually confused by technical jargons of the furniture world. Here at The 73, we want to make your life simpler and less complicated. Today, we are talking about the type of woods in the industry.
There are generally 3 types of wood in the industry. Below is an image of 3 types of wood used that has been split open.
Wood
The generally solid wood furniture is usually produced with local rubber wood from rubber trees. Rubber wood trees are in abundance as Malaysia is one of the biggest producers of rubber in the world. But rubber wood products are starting to be phased out in the local market as most of them are being exported as local demands are dying.
Major strength of rubber wood is its resistance to water and can be used for a long period of time without it running out of shape. The downside of it is that the designs for wood based furniture are more dull and boring. It is preferred if you are the sort who is looking for something that lasts a long time.
Though some of you may have known of other types of wood in the market such as Jati; but Jati wood is usually double the price of local rubber woods. It is also mainly imported from Indonesia and made from young trees.
Products using wood: Dining Tables + Chairs, chest of drawers, TV cabinets, Bed.
Board
One of the most sellable and most creative pieces of furniture is usually made from board. Look at it this way; it is one of the most commonly used material for designers to work on and the most in demand. Reason being it is easily shaped, made and renewable. The board material products are usually imported from China and Taiwan.
Board products have several advantages only which is that it is easily available in any furniture store. It is available over a range of products and price. As mentioned the material is easily bendable and design because of its soft nature. But it has more disadvantages then its advantage. It is not resistant to water as it would bloat up being soaked in water. Another disadvantage is that it is not sustainable to use for long as it wears of fast and easily run out of shape.
There is high quality board which are more resistant to water and wear and tear. But as far as this goes it is usually only used in TV Cabinets and it is high gloss (shiny white). But it is rather pricy.
Products using board: Anything under the furniture directory including Chinese altar.
Vinyl
This is a cross hybrid of the two; board plus wood. It is usually very hard to identify even us; we could be fooled by it. To describe it, it is actually board which has wood skin glued on it. It is more resistant to water and it is usually described as a solid wood product by unscrupulous sellers. It is perfectly identical from looking, touching and knocking (a technique to differentiate wood and board).
Disadvantages of this are similar to board products as its main content is board and usually vinyl products looks as old school and fetching the same price as a solid wood product.
Products using vinyl: Chest of drawers, TV cabinets, writing tables
