Rubberwood is a light-colored medium-density tropical
hardwood
Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...
obtained from the Pará rubber tree (''
Hevea brasiliensis
''Hevea brasiliensis'', the Pará rubber tree, ''sharinga'' tree, seringueira, or most commonly, rubber tree or rubber plant, is a flowering plant belonging to the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, originally native to the Amazon basin, but is now p ...
''), usually from trees grown in
rubber plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco ...
s. Rubberwood is commonly advertised as an "
environmentally friendly
Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that c ...
" wood, as it makes use of plantation trees that have already served a useful function.
Other names
Rubberwood is also known as plantation hardwood, or "Hevea" for the genus that the tree belongs to. In 2002, the
Malaysian Ministry of Primary Industries marketed it under the name "Malaysian Oak".
History
Although it had been used on a small scale before, its use for
furniture
Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...
making has become much more common in the late 20th and early 21st century with the development of chemical treatments to
protect the wood against fungal and insect attacks. There are extensive rubber plantations with mature trees, especially in
southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
; the earlier practice was to burn the tree at the end of its
latex
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latices are found in nature, but synthetic latices are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a wikt:milky, milky fluid, which is present in 10% of all floweri ...
-producing cycle.
Currently, rubber plantation trees are generally harvested for wood after they complete the latex producing cycle, when they are 25 to 30 years old. When the latex yields become extremely low, the trees are then felled, and new trees are usually planted. This makes rubberwood 'eco-friendly' in a way that the wood is harvested from a
renewable
A renewable resource (also known as a flow resource) is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...
source. The wood from the trees is light in color and straight-grained making it easy to stain and match in woodworking. Part of the industry adoption of rubberwood was an international campaign to avoid use of a previously used light straight-grained wood which was harvested from South East Asia's endangered wetland
ramin ''(Gonystylus)''.
Chemical treatment
Rubberwood is susceptible to fungal and insect attack that limited its use in the past. However, in the 1980s, the development of chemical treatment processes allowed the wood to be more widely used for furniture making and frames. Rubberwood is generally treated soon after sawing by pressurized immersion in
boron
Boron is a chemical element; it has symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the boron group it has three ...
preservative solution to diffuse the chemicals. Then, the treated timber is kiln-dried to reduce its moisture content.
Uses
Rubberwood has a dense grain that is easily controlled in the kiln drying process. Rubberwood has very little shrinkage, making it one of the more stable construction materials available for furniture, toys, and kitchen accessories. It is easily
worked, and takes on
stains
A stain is an unwanted localized discoloration, often in fabrics or textiles.
Stain(s) or The Stain(s) may also refer to:
Color
* Stain (heraldry), a non-standard tincture
* Staining, in biology, a technique used to highlight contrast in samples
...
uniformly. As with all hardwoods, rubberwood comes in varying degrees of quality.
It is not suitable for outdoor use, as rain can leach the protective chemicals from the wood, exposing it to fungus and insect attacks. Excessive moisture will also cause the wood to warp and rot.
References
External links
Properties of rubberwoodat the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Madison
{{Woodworking
Wood
Rubber
Sustainable building