Timber iQ February - March 2018 // Issue: 36 | Page 36

FEATURES
Understanding properties of wood is essential to determine application.
Timber furniture brings
warmth to any room
Authentic timber furniture, whether indoors or outdoors, is
guaranteed to bring warmth to any room.
By Ntsako Khosa
O
ften underrated, there’s no doubt timber always
ticks the aesthetic and functional boxes. While
choosing timber furniture is easy to do, the type of
timber classification, however, is a different story.
“Certain timbers work best for outdoor applications and
some timbers cannot be used outdoors,” says Shirley Mast,
director at bentwood furniture manufacturer, Woodbender.
However, any material can be used indoors.
‘Mostly any timber can be used for interior furniture
depending on preference,’ according to furniture
wholesaler, Homewood. The key is to know where you want
it to go and how you want it to be used, which helps you
choose the kind of timber that works best for the
environment it will live in. ‘With exterior furniture, you
need to look at timber that has less movement in service,
has strong resistance to wood rot, decay and insects,’
advises Sandton furniture wholesaler, Homewood.
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Woodbender prefers to work with ash timber as, “It is a
hard timber with good bending properties and a blonde
colour which is easy to stain to a client’s colour
preference,” says Mast.
“To create a product that will serve a specific function,
for example indoor or outdoor use, you need to understand
the properties of the wood. This is also an important
consideration because different manufacturing methods
require different timber properties, for example, we
require hardwood for the bending process,” explains Mast.
Woodbender steams and bends the wood to create the
component parts required for bentwood furniture.
Currently, the natural finish of the wood is popular. Mast
states that the current trend is to celebrate the natural
See more on page 36