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For your convenience we have put together
some information to help you with your log furniture purchase.
If you are looking for unique log furniture pieces for you home our
website can help you find it. With furniture distributors such as Pop's
Furniture offering quality products with a wide range of styles and
options you can shop with confidence. With our ready to finish furniture
you know you are getting quality products from local craftspeople and
national manufacturers.
Wood Definitions:
Solid Wood
If the piece you are looking at states it is solid wood that means you
will be getting a product that has all exposed parts made of solid board
in either a softwood or hardwood. There would be no sub-standard
products such as veneer or particle board used. When furniture is made
of solid boards, the wood boards are glued together along the edges and
typically a large quantity of boards will be used to allow the furniture
to be more secure and reduce warping.
Veneers
If a piece of furniture has any type of veneer used you can spot this by
checking the seams and the end pieces of wood. A solid board can be
identified by the "end" grain while veneers are glued over the edges to
make it appear to be solid wood. These veneers will never show an "end"
grain.
Keep in mind when shopping that if a product is marked "all-wood" that
does not necessarily indicate that it is made of solid wood. Furniture
made from veneers can give you a real wood look but at a considerably
lower price that solid lumber and veneers are usually overlaid on some
type of wood product such as plywood or particle board.
While plywood core is less expensive and can be easily repaired when
damaged it can have problems if it gets wet. Particle board on the other
hand is easily damaged because the board is so hard it cannot absorb
shock if dropped or struck hard.
What is a veneer?
When you see the term veneer in relation to wood furniture this means
that a thin layer of wood is applied in sheets over underlying layers of
plywood or particleboard to give the illusion of solid hard or softwood.
Differences of Plywood / Particle Board
Plywood is made by gluing thin layers of solid wood over each other with
grains running at 90-degree angles to produce a strong core.
Particle board is created by gluing chips and particles of wood together
and pressing them into sheets.
Hardwood vs. Softwood
The terms hardwood and softwood does not indicate the strength of a
particular wood, this is determined by the density of the wood.
A typical hardwood will come from deciduous trees such as maple, oak and
alder.
Softwoods come from conifers trees such as pine, spruce and fir trees.
As stated earlier the term hardwood and softwood does not necessarily
indicate the strength of the wood. For instance, balsa wood which is
classified as a hardwood is actually softer than a typical softwood such
as pine.
Good quality wood furniture should be
enjoyed and used for a lifetime. Solid wood furniture offers so many
wood offers many wonderful benefits.
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