Wood Properties

Beech
WOOD TYPE
Common names: EUROPEAN BEECH, English, French, Greek, depending on the country of origin.
Botanical classification: Fagus sylvatica. Fam.: Fagaceae.
GENERAL
Main products: Sawn wood, veneer.
Natural attributes - structure - origins: Heavy wood (720 kg/m³). The heartwood is very pale pink - brown. Throughout Europe it is steamed and acquires a uniform reddish brown color. Some logs have dark red heartwood. Straight grained wood with fine and uniform texture. It grows in central Europe, UK, west Asia.
Natural durability in time: Non-durable. Attacked by the common furniture and the death watch beetle. The sapwood is attacked by the longhorn beetle.
Mechanical attributes: It has high compressive strength, moderate modulus of elasticity and average resistance to sudden loads.
Density: R (12-15%) = 0,72 gr/cm³
PROPERTIES AND PROCESSING OPERATIONS WOOD
Drying behavior and stability after drying: Dries fairly quickly, but prone to warping, end splitting, surface checking and shrinkage. Requires attention during artificial drying. After drying, highly variable in size during usage.
Impregnation behavior: Permeable.
Bending behavior: Extremely good flexural behavior during steaming.
Working properties - tool blunting: The treatment quality depends on the growing conditions of the tree and the drying quality. Wood with abnormal structure and poor drying, gets stuck in cutting discs, is burnt during cross cutting and is difficult to plane. Resistance to treatment by tools and machinery as well as tool blunting properties can be classed as average.
Νailing and screwing: Predrilling required for nailing.
Gluing behavior: Good.
Behavior in the dyeing and finishing: Good paint, excellent finish.
APPLICATIONS
Furniture, cabinets, high class joinery, work benches, shoeheels, toys, turnery, sportware, utensils, musical instruments, flooring, heavy construction work, work at marinas (after impregnation), plywood, timber cladding.
 

Oak
WOOD TYPE
Common names: EUROPEAN OAK, Oak European, English-Polish kl.p. Oak (1), Pendunculata oak (2)
Botanical classification: (1) Quercus petrea, Q. sessiliflora (2) Q. ropur, Q. pendunculata. Fam.: Fagaceae
GENERAL
Main products: Sawn wood, veneer
Natural attributes - structure - origins: Heavy wood (670-720 kg/m3). The heartwood is light yellow brown to yellow-gray. Usually straight grain wood but may have irregular structure and be cross grained, depending on the growth conditions. Characteristic silver grain figure on quarter-sawn wood due to broad rays. The British and Baltic oak is hard and rough with weight 720 kg/m3 while the oak of N. Poland and the softer Slovenian oak have density 670 kg/m3. It grows in Europe, UK, middle Asia and North Africa.
Natural durability in time: Durable heartwood. The acid content erodes metals and therefore non-ferrous or galvanized metals should be used.
Mechanical attributes: If in contact with ferrous metals acquires blue spots, due to oxidation.
Density: R (12-15%) = 0,67-0,72 gr/cm3
PROPERTIES AND PROCESSING OPERATIONS WOOD
Drying behavior and stability after drying: Very slow drying susceptible to cracking and warping. There is a little dimensional variability after drying.
Impregnation behavior: The sapwood is permeable and the heartwood is extremely resistant to impregnation.
Bending behavior: Very good steam bending properties.
Working properties - tool blunting: Causes moderate to heavy tool-blunting. Cutters must be kept sharp. Planing and shaping requires a cutting angle of 20 degrees.
Gluing behavior: Special care required.
Behavior in the dyeing and finishing: Very good dyeing and finishing.
APPLICATIONS
The preponderance of tyloses in the pores of white oaks resists the passage of liquids making them suitable for barrels of cognac, wine and beer. The Slovenian, German, Volhynian oak is preferred for furniture. The English oak is best for boat building, dock and harbour work, sea defences, railway wagons, ladder rungs, sills, thresholds and for all purposes of exposure in contact with the ground. High class joinery, coffins, church furniture and carving, flooring, vehicle body bearers, plywood, decorative veneer in characteristic silver grain or raindrops design.
 
 
White Fir
WOOD TYPE
Common names: Abies alba, silver fir.
Botanical classification: Abies alba.
GENERAL
Main products: Sawn wood, claddings, ceilings.
Natural attributes - structure - origins: Properties and applications are similar to the wood of Cephalonian Abies. Fine-pored, straight grained, non-uniform. Wood quality is enhanced by reducing the width of the annual rings. The white fir grows in cenral Europe and the northern border of Greece.
Natural durability in time: Non-durable to perishable.
Density: R (0%) = 0,41 gr/cm³ R (12-15%) = 0,44 gr/cm³
Crimping: Radial= 3.8, Tangential +7,6
Modulus of elasticity: 98.000 kp/cm²
Breaking measure:  676 kp/cm²
PROPERTIES AND PROCESSING OPERATIONS WOOD
Drying behavior and stability after drying: Easy and quick drying 60 / 70-75 / 85. Average mobility, fairly stable wood.
Impregnation behavior: The sapwood is permeable, while the heartwood moderately resistant.
Bending behavior: Low degree of curvature. The wood can be easily split.
Working properties - tool blunting: Good treatment, low tool-blunting.
Νailing and screwing: Easy nailing and screwing, but attention is required to the edges of the sawn wood.
Gluing behavior: Good.
Behavior in the dyeing and finishing: Good paint, good finish.
APPLICATIONS
Like the Cephalonian Abies: indoor home building and joinery, interior furniture, based panels etc.
 
African Iroko
WOOD TYPE
Common names: IROKO, Kambala, tule, moreira, band.
Botanical classification: Chlorophora excelsa, C. regia. Fam. Moreaceae.
GENERAL
Main products: Sawn wood, plywood.
Natural attributes - structure - origins: Wood of medium weight with gold orange to brown color with lighter vessel lines on tangent sections. The material may contain large, hard deposits of calcium carbonate in cavities and the wood around them may be darker in color. The grain is interlocked and sometimes irregular and the texture rather coarse, but even. It grows in tropical Africa, from Sierra Leone to Tanzania and West Africa from Senegal to Ghana.
Natural durability in time: Very durable. The sapwood may be infected by the bug Lyctus, but is very resistant to termites in Africa.
Mechanical attributes: Wood with medium flexural and crushing strength, with very low modulus of elasticity and very low resistance to percussion.
Density: R (12-15%) = 0.64 g/cm³
Modulus of elasticity: 9.400 N/mm²
Breaking measure: 90 N/mm²
WOOD PROPERTIES AND PROCESSING OPERATIONS
Drying behavior and stability after drying: Dries almost quickly and well, without much downgrading. Has a tendency to create sticky spots. There is a small variability in size after drying.
Impregnation behavior: The sapwood is permeable and the heartwood is extremely durable.
Bending behavior: Wood with moderate flexural behavior when steaming.
Working properties - tool blunting: The material works satisfactorily with hand and machine tools. A high degree of tool blunting occurs when calcium carbonate deposits are present. A reduction of cutting angle to 15 degrees is necessary for a smooth finish in planing quarter sawn surfaces due to interlocked grain.
Nailing and screwing: Good nailing, good screwing.
Dyeing and finishing: Paints well, while after using substrate varnish, there is an excellent finish.
APPLICATIONS
Shipbuilding wood, indoor and outdoor woodwork, lab benches, furniture and wood carvings,constructions in harbors, floors, plywood, wall coverings, decorative veneer.