meranti

[engineerone]

after colin checked out some of my wood yesterday, i wonder what do people use meranti for???

is it any good for furniture, and if so what?

paul

[dom]

It can be used for furniture, and is often substituted for mahogany, which it certainly is not.
It is, in my opinion more suited for interior joinery and is not the best for exterior joinery unlesss it's well treated.
A lot of plywood is made from it.

[jaco]

Did a project for friends once.

It was dormer windows in a thatch roof. The person who did the original work was a 5th rate wood butcher.
Used meranti for all the frames including the windows that open.
It is well protected form rain and sun.

Gave 4 coates of Wooddoc Marine oil/varnish.
Used bridle joints on the windows that open. Plus sme nice brass fittings.

[jfc]

Dom is correct for once ;D I use Meranti for painted external joinery .

[dirtydeeds]

meranti is the stock "hardwood" sold in most timber merchants

most of the time, its the most rubbish timber going, some of it is as lightweight as cls

[jfc]

I thought the lighter stuff was laun (spelling )

[dirtydeeds]

i do so like being charged for one thing and getting another

[Sgian Dubh]

engineerone said:

after colin checked out some of my wood yesterday, i wonder what do people use meranti for??? paul

I can't tell from your message Paul what it was that you and Colin found either good or bad about your meranti.

It's difficult to buy timber of the genus Shorea and know what you're getting. Meranti is one of the Shoreas, as are about seventy other species, most of which find their way into the market in one form or another.

Within the Shorea genus you will find a wide variety of characteristics. Some are hard and others are soft. Some are dark and some are pale. Some are light and some are heavy. Some are durable in exterior locations and some are not.

There are advantages to using the Latin binomial names when buying timber. Dealers can't sell you something else if you specify using the Latin. It's either what you specify, or it isn't, and there's no fudging whatsoever. Vernacular names, customary names and trade names are wooly and open to interpretation, and misinterpretation. The Latin binomial system eliminates all that.

For example, if you ask for Shorea pauciflora and quite a few other of the Shorea species you'll get what's sold as dark red meranti. This stuff is moderately durable for exterior wood and is good for furniture too.

Shorea acuminata and other species are sold as light red meranti. Some are durable, and others aren't in exterior locations.

The Lauan's are a minefield of genera and species that are lumped under this general trade name. You've got to know what characteristics you require and specify in Latin what you want. As most of the dealers probably don't get this information from their importers, your not likely to get much success. Much the same applies to the various merantis. It seems to be, in my experience all rather pot-luck unless you're able to go through FSC sources. Slainte.

[colincott]

Hi Sgian Dubh

The problem was that Paul was sold it as walnut and I looked at it and saw it was not

[dom]

Hi SD,

With the greatest respect, I have the feeling that should anyone, who is not a regular at a timber yard, ask for Shorea pauciflora, they would probably get more than they bargained for ;D

[Sgian Dubh]

dom said:

Hi SD,

With the greatest respect, I have the feeling that should anyone, who is not a regular at a timber yard, ask for Shorea pauciflora, they would probably get more than they bargained for ;D

They might indeed Dom. But as a buyer it wouldn't be an unfair request to ask which specific Shorea you're purchasing. It will say on the timber merchant's receipt from their supplier what they bought and from what source.

It is a minefield this timber buying game, and it's got to be hard for those not familiar with the terms of the trade and the experience to ask the right questions.

I find it interesting that meranti seems to have been mistakenly either bought as, or sold as, walnut in this case. Apart from the fact that walnut looks nothing like meranti, asking for or ordering Juglans nigra or Juglans regia is specific to two different walnuts.

If the supplier selected and presented the material to the buyer there couldn't be any other reasonable response from the supplier except, "Oops, an error on our part. We'll take back the wrong material and replace it with what you ordered." On the other hand if the choice was the buyer's choice, then the error may not really be the timber merchant's, unless the merchant measured, checked and priced the material for the sale. Walnut and meranti will have different prices and as a mercahant you wouldn't look at meranti and then charge the customer walnut prices. The merchant might say something like, "Oh, I thought you wanted walnut, but I see you've selected meranti instead. Did you change your mind?" That would get a few alarm bells ringing in a buyer's mind I bet, ha, ha. Slainte.

[jfc]

I've asked for the latin names for the stock white wood and the reply i got was that the supplier to the timber yard called the timber unspecified . I was sure the white wood was spruce (Picea abies) and needed it for the guitar build but was told to steer clear of other pines (Pinus) . As you can imagine the conversation at the timber yard went down hill after i mentioned the latter latin name ...... As it probably will here ;D

[engineerone]

actually to put it into perspective lads, and remind colin,
i thought it was cherry

but it is so long since i bought those bits, which were a number of offies and i did indeed chose them having been told that in the pile of offies there were some cherry bits, etc.

since in the past i have made some really good deals with the wood yard, i cannot really complain if a couple of 2x2s were not what i had considered.

must get a better wood recognition book ;D

however sd you did not expand on my knowledge base about what i might be able to use them for apart from wall braces ;D

could i for instance use it to make a chest, or a drawer unit??
since i have some other stuff which i was sold as mahogany, but ages ago, ex window stuff, and i would consider making drawer fronts from that, and an open side unit.

paul

[jaco]

JFC - I've asked for the latin names for the stock .....

Paul - must get a better wood recognition book

www.rarewoods.co.za/

[dom]

As stated earlier Paul, it can be used for furniture but would not be first choice.
It is stable enough and takes a finish well, although the grain can tend to be a little wild.
This is of course assuming it is Meranti and not Lauan, which as SD stated is a Shorea, I do not have experience of this, but am informed that this type is an inferior grade and generally used for plywood and the hidden parts of furniture.

[Sgian Dubh]

engineerone said:

actually to put it into perspective lads, and remind colin,
i thought it was cherry

however sd you did not expand on my knowledge base about what i might be able to use them for apart from wall braces ;D paul

Ha, ha. This gets more interesting by the minute, Paul. It was supposed to be cherry, turned out to not be walnut..... and is actually meranti. I think I need a drink, even at this time of day.

Meranti is sometimes a decent quality cabinet grade wood. You'll be able to tell easily enough which meranti you have there.

Just hand plane the surface and see how the wood reacts. If it cuts up badly, with lots of tearout due to interlocked grain and is wooly it's not such good stuff. It will almost certainly be pale red or pinkish in colour too and is likely to be the light meranti. It's used mostly for secondary cabinet or joinery parts.

The better stuff will be dark reddy brown coloured and will plane crisply leaving a quite clean surface. It will make good show cabinet or joinery parts.

This meranti thing can be a bit of a lottery as I've said before. There are just so many species in that Shorea genus and it's difficult to get the right species in the right class at the exporter and merchant's end. Slainte.

[colincott]

I remember now

Paul did say cherry and not walnut.

[Alf]

sgiandubh said:

It is a minefield this timber buying game, and it's got to be hard for those not familiar with the terms of the trade and the experience to ask the right questions.

Ain't that the truth. I think that may partially account for why us hobby types can get so excited about the tool side of things - at least we can order a LN in the pretty safe knowledge that we'll end up with what we expected.

Paul, take heart; an old accomplice from UK Woodworking days similarly bought some offcuts of meranti instead of the cherry they thought they were choosing. I seem to recall he mentioned some labeling or something that imaginatively called it "industrial cherry" or some such nonsense.

Cheers, Alf

[mikew]

engineerone said:

after colin checked out some of my wood yesterday, i wonder what do people use meranti for???

is it any good for furniture, and if so what?

paul

Hi Paul,

As Richard says, the darker red Meranti can certainly be good wood. I've used it a bunch. This was some for my last commission...



Stable, works by power and hand tools nicely. I have one other stick like those hiding in the house somewhere. Don't know what I'll make from it--nor when I'll have time to.

Maybe I'll make a new saw till with a tambour door

Take care, Mike

[Sgian Dubh]

jfc said:

I've asked for the latin names for the stock white wood ... As you can imagine the conversation at the timber yard went down hill... ;D

There are so many softwoods that go under the generic names of Whitewood, Red Pine and White Pine. It does make it difficult to know what you're getting. For the most part these timbers of course go for general construction and building purposes to which they are well suited.

If you've got a special need, such as the one you mentioned about guitar bodies or sound boards, you are generally able to get specific species, but they do tend to take some hunting around for. I haven't had to get specific with softwoods for a long time so I'm not sure which timber merchants could help.

In my area (West Yorkshire) I'd probably contact someone like John Boddy or Dragon Timber first and seek their guidance. Both seem to have a good ear to the ground for specialist requirements, and if they don't have what we want they often seem to know who might. Slainte.

[mrgrimsdale]

jfc said:

I've asked for the latin names for the stock white wood and the reply i got was that the supplier to the timber yard called the timber unspecified . I was sure the white wood was spruce (Picea abies) and needed it for the guitar build but was told to steer clear of other pines (Pinus) . As you can imagine the conversation at the timber yard went down hill after i mentioned the latter latin name ...... As it probably will here ;D

If I was after spruce for a guitar front I think I'd pay the extra and go to an instrument makers suppliers. You could get it a lot cheaper but it'd be 90% crap. The time will cost you a lot more than the wood either way.

cheers
Jacob

[mrgrimsdale]

sgiandubh said:

jfc said:

I've asked for the latin names for the stock white wood ... As you can imagine the conversation at the timber yard went down hill... ;D

There are so many softwoods that go under the generic names of Whitewood, Red Pine and White Pine. It does make it difficult to know what you're getting. For the most part these timbers of course go for general construction and building purposes to which they are well suited.

If you've got a special need, such as the one you mentioned about guitar bodies or sound boards, you are generally able to get specific species, but they do tend to take some hunting around for. I haven't had to get specific with softwoods for a long time so I'm not sure which timber merchants could help.

In my area (West Yorkshire) I'd probably contact someone like John Boddy or Dragon Timber first and seek their guidance. Both seem to have a good ear to the ground for specialist requirements, and if they don't have what we want they often seem to know who might. Slainte.

Red wood (in UK) or better European redwood you can reliably expect to be Scots Pine - which also languishes under the names of Baltic, Finnish, Swedish, Russian, Polish redwood: red deal, yellow deal: red pine (Scotland) but has no relation to Californian redwood or American red pine.
Just trying to be helpful. ;D

cheers
Jacob

[jfc]

I wanted the spruce for the struting not the sound board .The strutting "spruce" i got last time was £20 for a couple of offcuts i'd chuck on the fire . When planed up it matched the stock white wood i had so thats why i asked further questions .

[afterglow]

Trawling through, I came across this Meranti thread...


I'm the "old accomplice from ukw days" that Alf mentioned, I fear. My first ever purchase of hardwood was a plank of cherry, which I decided to call "industrial cherry" because I'm unconvinced of its real source.

Anyway, it's nothing like meranti either, which I've got a whole lot of (another story, nay, a gloat, from olden times).

Pale meranti is horrible stuff, frankly. It is lightweight, soft and "fluffy" when machined, splits easily and I can't imagine it ever being a decent surface for furniture. OK for framework and I'll probably turn what I've got into workshop cabinets, but not something I could imagine using in the house anywhere, apart from maybe as stair rails or other architectural kind of stuff.

The darker stuff I've got is much heavier and harder with an attractive stripy grain. I've made a small box out of this stuff and it's lovely when finished, very much like a mahogany. I can see my planks getting turned into a new dining table at some point, once I get rid of the Mirror Dinghy that's hiding my wood stash from me at the moment.

Which reminds me, anybody want to buy a mirror dinghy?

Cheers,

Lee

[Alf]

Phew, just as well I was polite, albeit inaccurate... ;D