| > | | | | furniture when in fact this is one of the most durable |
| Originally discovered in the early 1600’s by | | | | hardwoods used in furniture making today. This |
| explorers rubber wood has a long history. Native | | | | member of the Euphorbiaceae family is |
| people used the sap from rubber wood to design balls | | | | characterized by dense grain that is simply controlled in |
| to play with. Excited by the possibilities explorers | | | | the kiln drying process. The lack of shrinkage makes |
| gathered seeds to take back to Europe. It did not take | | | | for a perfect material from which to build furniture. The |
| long to see that these trees grew very well in | | | | lumber is easy to work with and will take on many |
| European colonies in Asia, French Indo China, and | | | | different finishes. For example rubberwood can be |
| Thailand. Like so many other maple trees rubberwood | | | | made to look like oak or rosewood, this can cause |
| is a sap producing tree and in its paticular case rubber | | | | confusion though when it comes time to identify what |
| is produced. Once a tree had fulfilled its rubber making | | | | type of wood a particular piece of furniture is made |
| life time it would be cut down and burned as useless | | | | from. |
| wood. When this tree is farmed its sustainability | | | | Â |
| feature is highly important. Today rubberwood is the | | | | At the time when vulcanization was made perfect, a |
| most environmentally friendly lumber that is milled and | | | | process that kept rubber from degrading, production |
| used in furniture. Other types of wood used in the | | | | was augmented for the production of bike tires. When |
| industry are specifically grown only for their lumber. | | | | car productions increased so did the demand for |
| However a rubberwood first completes nearly 25 | | | | rubber for the tires. By WW II, there was such a high |
| years as a rubber producer before being turned into | | | | demand for rubber that tires began to be |
| furniture. Once the tree dies it is then milled making it | | | | manufactured from synthetic material. This led to a fall |
| friendly in every sense of the word. There is absolutely | | | | in rubber production until it was discovered in 1960 that |
| no waste to this farmed lumber source. | | | | the rubberwood tree had other uses. They figured out |
| Â | | | | that it was a great wood for furniture as it was nearly |
| Rubberwood has many names, rubber tree and in | | | | as hard as oak. |
| Thailand it is called parawood. Whatever the name it is | | | | Â |
| called by one thing is for sure it is great for creating | | | | In this day and age the rubber from the rubberwood is |
| high end furniture. The dense grain, beautiful color, | | | | used primarily for erasers, condoms and gloves. |
| minimal shrinkage and ability to accept many finishes | | | | Â |
| make it very popular. The fact that it is also | | | | To finish a piece of rubberwood is not much different |
| environmentally sound does not hurt its acceptance | | | | than other hard woods. To get that smooth even finish |
| either. Since it is allowed to run a full production of latex | | | | it will have to be sanded, the smoother the sanding the |
| nothing is wasted. Many people misunderstand the | | | | lighter the finish tends to turn out. A good trick to |
| name of this fine specimen of | | | | sanding is to see the wood with your hands. Instead of |
| Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | | | | merely looking at it feel the wood for rough patches, |
| Â | | | | these rough areas will stain darker than smoothe ones. |
| The nature of the name of the wood is confusing | | | | I prefer to sand with a sanding block and a clean hand. |
| enough, rubberwood invokes images of bouncing | | | | |