Wood Species vs. MDF

Jill encourages her clients to use sustainable products in their puzzles in order to minimize their carbon footprint. Consequently, most of her jigsaw puzzles are made with MDF, which is easier to manipulate than wood, less expensive, doesn't react to climate, and can be veneered with wood grains to mimic harvested species.

Replanting and nurturing furniture grade hardwoods helps to promote healthy, diverse forests. If you prefer that Jill utilize harvested species or "reclaimed" woods from old buildings to make your puzzle, please contact her via e-mail at jill@thewoodenwizard.com to discuss product options and pricing. Using hardwoods in your puzzle, although more costly and time-consuming to create, it promotes the value of mature trees and encourages the replanting of forests and maintenance of healthy, diverse ecosystems.

One of the factors that influenced Jill's decision to work with MDF is because all wood is made up of cells that continue to shrink and swell with changes in humidity. Since her clients reside in different geographic locations, it is difficult to predict how real wood will react to different climates.

A 12-inch wide board will move on average about 1/8 of an inch over the course of a year. The boards will crack and break apart over the years if the wood is not properly joined. Antique furniture that has survived today was crafted with joints such as the mortise and tenon, dovetail, finger joint, floating panels and beautifully glued veneers. It's not that they didn't make bad furniture 100 years ago; it is just that only the well-designed and constructed furniture has survived.

Different woods are the palette of furniture, cabinet and toymakers, providing color and texture options as well as strength and beauty. Each type of wood has characteristics to be considered when designing with it. Some products are very hard and durable; some are flexible and suitable for bending. "Hardwood" is a term applied to trees that lose their leaves in winter. "Softwood" describes evergreens such as fir, pine and redwood. The actual durability of wood is described in a range from very soft to very hard.

Additionally, every wood has a distinctive grain structure. Woods such as white and red oak, ash, and walnut have "open-pores." These woods have small holes in their surface that give the piece a textural quality. When a stain is applied to this type of surface, the stain tends to collect in the "open-pores" and appears darker than the rest of the piece. Tightly grained woods include maple, alder, and cherry. These are smooth to the touch and can take finish evenly. Many woods have unique "figure" such as quilting, birdseye, fiddleback or spalting.

Wood Types

California softwoods and hardwoods include:

• Alder - Warm brown in color with a figure like cherry, alder is a medium soft wood suitable for cabinetry and furniture with the appropriate sized joinery.
  
  
• Pacific Maple - Golden yellow wood with a variety of figure available. It can be found in curly or fiddleback varieties. This is a medium hard wood suitable for all types of furniture.
  
  
• Madrone - One of the harder California native woods, Madrone has a reddish pink color with streaks throughout. Used in furniture and turnings, it also has applications in flooring and architectural woodwork.
  
  

Other softwoods and hardwoods - Ash, Basswood, Beech, Birch, Butternut, Tennessee Aromatic Cedar, Cherry, Fir, Hickory, Maple, Pine, Poplar, Red Oak, Walnut, and White Oak.

Eastern hardwoods:

• Maple - Hard rock maple is one of the strongest domestic woods. The "select white" grade has a warm gold-ivory color when finished with a hand rubbed oil. Because of its hardness rock maple is suitable for all types of furniture and cabinetry.
  
  
• Cherry - Furniture grade cherry is a moderately heavy, hard, strong, wood. Close grained, it can be polished to a deep and glowing red. Many of the finest early American tabletops and interior panels were made of this wood, which is suitable for all furniture and cabinetry including chairs.
  
  
• Walnut - North American walnut is one of the most prized hardwoods. It can range in color from deep rich brown to an almost purple brown. This is an open-pored wood that is relatively hard. Walnut is durable and finishes beautifully and therefore useful in many furniture applications.
  
  

Exotic Woods - Andiroba, Bayo, Bloodwood, Bocote, Bubinga, Spanish Cedar, Chaktekok, Chechen, Chicozapote, Cocobolo, Ebony, Fishtail Oak, Granadillo, Ironbark, Ipe, Jabin, Jarrah, Jatoba, Katalox, Kingwood, Koa, Lacewood, Lignum Vitae, African Mahogany, Machiche, Narra, Obeche, Pau Ferro, African Paduak, Peruvian Walnut, Purpleheart, Brazilian Rosewood, Satinwood, Snakewood, Teak, Vesi Wenge, and Zebrawood.

With bright colors and expressive grain patterns these woods are often used as highlights in furnishing and turnings. Some exotics such as African mahogany and granadillo are excellent for building entire pieces of furniture, chairs, and cabinetry.

• Lacewood - A relatively soft wood grown widely in Australia, this wood has an unusual grain structure that has the look of hammered copper when properly cut. It can be used as an accent wood or in veneered tabletops.
  
  
• Granadillo - A beautiful and hard wood from Southern Mexico with tan-deep brown streaking, this close-grained species is a "smart wood" selectively harvested in cooperation with indigenous people. It is suitable for all furniture applications.
  
  
• African Mahogany - Deep rich, red and suitable for any furniture application, this wood is imported from Ghana, which has had a sustained yield forestry program in place since 1910.
  
  

Grain means texture, too

Texture means the relative size as well as the amount of variation in size of the wood cells. It's the cells and how they are arranged in bands called rays, and the size and distribution of pores that make the difference between fine-textured wood and coarse-textured wood. Woodworkers, though, say "fine-grained" and "coarse-grained" rather than use the word texture to describe this characteristic of wood. And you don't have to be a wood technologist to see as well as feel the difference in grain.

To fill or not to fill?

When wood finishers refer to a hardwood as open-grained or close-grained, they are talking about the relative size of the pores. This determines whether or not the surface requires application of filler to get a smoother finish.

It's all in how you view a board.

A flat sawn board, that is, one sawn from a log through and through without it being turned, has three surfaces or planes. In true quarter sawn wood, the log must be sawn lengthwise into quarters. Then, each quarter log has to be sawn perpendicular to the growth rings. Although a quarter sawn board has the same planes, its end-, face-, and edge-grain views will look different from a flat sawn board.

What is Wood Veneer? It is a thin slice of wood cut from a log with a slicing, peeling, or sawing machine. It is used on plywood, fine furniture, and laminated shapes for decorative and architectural purposes. Before a log is cut into veneer, it is often steamed or soaked in a bath of very hot water. This "cooking" process softens the log so that veneers can be sliced without tearing and splitting. After the veneer is sliced, it is pressed flat between heated platens and bundled into stacks in the same order that it was removed from the log.

Veneer opens a whole new world of woodworking to even the most experienced craftsperson. With an exotic veneer, simple projects can be turned into works of art. In fact, a highly figured veneer can often be the qualifying characteristic that makes one project stand well above the rest. Veneer gives you a unique opportunity to work with some of the most beautiful and exotic woods in the world without having to dip into your retirement account. Wood veneer has several distinct advantages over solid lumber that cannot be overlooked. It is these advantages that have brought the art of veneering into most professional cabinet and furniture shops. The good news is that with the right tools, veneering is relatively easy and weekend warriors to turn even the most mundane projects into heirloom quality now becoming a mainstream technique use it.

The True Beauty of Veneer

Stability - Some species of wood are simply unstable in lumber form. The unorganized grain in burl wood is beautiful but horribly prone to warping and splitting. By slicing a burl into veneer, wood movement is kept under control by the adhesive and substrate. Even the most unruly woods can be sliced into veneer and used to make a stunning, yet stable panel.

Economy & Availability - Many wood species are so rare and valuable that in lumber form is simply unaffordable. There's a marked scarcity of fine logs available worldwide. Couple this with the idea that there is an ever-increasing demand for fine wood and you have a formula for a log that is worth ten times what it was 5 years ago. By slicing a log into veneer, the square foot of "face" material is increased by over 4,000% and a new economy is created for these forest products. This increase in value is certainly not limited to straight grain wood. Figured wood is subjected to almost unimaginable increases in value and as these logs are sliced and exported, wood users are going to see prices rise, quality drop, and large sizes become extreme rare.

Practicality - If you've ever seen a classic serpentine dresser, you probably understand the practicality of using veneer for curved work. But it's certainly not limited to fancy projects. Oak, cherry, walnut, and other hardwood plywood are more than just practical. They're often considered indispensable for many woodworking projects.

Layup Options - You can create some of the most beautiful kaleidoscope designs with a keen eye and a few sheets of sequenced veneers.

A Bad Wrap, Literally

The term "veneer" often brings to mind an idea of inferior quality. This is especially true of projects created in the early to mid 1940's when fine lumber was scarce. Because of World War II, there was also a dearth of good craftsman and the adhesives used for veneering during this difficult time were less then perfect. Twenty years later, the worst of these veneer pieces became obvious and by the mid-70's, the term veneer became synonymous with shoddy quality.

Fortunately, this stigma has faded and veneering has become one of the top interests among woodworkers. This is largely due the costs and scarcity of exotic wood. However, there's no denying that veneering techniques have become much more mainstream. The processes, which were once considered to belong to an exclusive group of craftsman, are now readily available on the Internet, at the library, and through woodworking classes. Veneer adhesives have improved by leaps and bounds too. By the late 70's, veneer adhesives had been nearly perfected. No earth-shattering improvements have been made since then but several tweaks have been introduced to make these veneer glues more affordable, durable, and easy to use.

Staining and Finishing Veneered Projects

Since veneer is real wood, it will accept stains and finishes much like solid wood. The choices of stains and finishes are many and each combination can yield a different outcome. Ultimately, it is up to you or your customer to decide which stain (if any) is best for the project. As with any woodworking project, testing with sample boards is highly recommended.

• Burls are typically not stained. The natural colors and patterns in the burls are usually so beautiful that applying a stain would be considered a travesty by some woodworkers. The only exception to this idea is walnut burl, which can be stained with a medium to dark oil-based stain to enhance the richness of the walnut color without dramatically changing the tones. 

  
  
• Curly, mottled, quilted, pommele, and bird's eye figures will often display their best shimmer without a stain. However, some dye stains will bring the chatoyance to its peak. The drawback is that you'll be changing the wood from its natural color. For example, most people will not stain koa veneer. The natural colors are brilliant enough and the shimmer comes through with even a basic topcoat of oil-based polyurethane.
  
  
• Some wood species are a bit oily and this can pose a small problem for some water-based finishes. Oily species include bubinga, wenge, teak, and rosewood. With these species, consider using an oil-based stain and finish.
  
  
• There are many good water-based stains and topcoats available but for the most part, you will find that oil-based stains and finishes provide the best color, depth of grain, and durability. If you choose to skip staining and just opt for a top clear coat, you'll find that oil-based and lacquer-based finishes provide a nice natural color without obscuring the grain. These finishes are great for visually "popping" the grain in figured woods.

  
  
• Regardless of which stain you choose, be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions and allow ample drying time between coats.