There are many different kinds of woods used in manufacturing furniture products in today’s market. Kitchen furniture is usually constructed with particleboard/chipboard but the worktops and doors are often of solid wood or a veneer. Living room furniture and bedroom furniture are also of course available in a wide range of woods.
Solid hardwood, for instance, is timber that after harvesting and sawing has undergone a slow drying process in kilns where the moisture content has been reduced to six per cent. Solid hardwoods are mostly used to form the structure of furniture. They are thus particularly suited for making such furniture parts as the frame, the legs and the posts on which the weight of a cabinet, table or chair rests. The strength of joints in a piece of wooden furniture is reinforced by the use of bonding glue. One way of telling whether a piece of furniture has a properly fitted joint is to lift the piece of furniture at one corner. The whole item should go up in one piece without any twisting or cracking.
Particleboard and plywood are wood products that are produced from softwood. This does not make them inferior but actually makes wood products that have more stability and there is less likelihood of them splitting or warping compared to solid woods. Particleboard and plywood usually bear a frame made of solid wood and the veneers that cover them give them the resemblance of a fine piece of wood.
The use of veneers is an ancient practice and dates to as far back as the ancient empires of the Romans and the Egyptians. The use of veneers gained wide popularity in the seventeenth century. Veneering is not only useful in covering damaged panels of wood but it also adds aesthetic appeal. Most veneers are made from highly-priced woods.


