With the arrival of newer options everyday, furniture buying has turned into a real chore. It has come to be easily difficult to pick the best from the good enough. There is metal, glass and the good old wood. Even the types of wood, the qualities and strengths of each, the stamina and moisture content can leave anyone terribly confused. In this situation, it is not wise to wholly trust the salesperson at the local store. It is prominent that you do your basic homework before stepping out to buy wooden furniture. What the salesperson calls solid wood might just be plywood or particle board topped with a veneer. There is a big unlikeness between Amish handmade furniture and plywood cabinets with oak doors.
Now one would wonder why so many furniture manufacturers use plywood instead of solid wood. Here is why. One theorize why veneered panels of plywood are used extensively in furniture making is the cost of plywood versus solid wood. Plywood can be got at a small fraction of the cost of easily good solid wood. The more high-priced solid woods like cherry can cost as much as 3 to 4 times the price of sheet goods. Manufacturers have now begun calling their cheap plyboards and flakeboards as 'Furniture Boards' just to improve its image.
Woodcraft
Another theorize is the cost of labor to machine and assemble solid panels versus just cutting a rectangle of plywood or veneering a panel. It is economy to work with sheet goods than solid lumber in terms of man hours spent to put the piece together. Many high end tabletops are simply veneered plyboards with a wood edge. Despite the difficulty, true Amish furniture is handmade out of solid wood and stained and terminated to perfection to give you a piece to last a lifetime.
Another theorize is that it is easy to get thousands of plywood sheets all looking identical. Solid wood by its nature would differ slightly in terms of grain, color, shade and moisture content. Cabinet parts, to many people, are more keen in the form of matched veneer than the random color and grain matching of solids. Some citizen prefer the color unlikeness of solids and the sometimes wild grain patterns and try to use these differences to make unique looking details.
In the Usa, the Federal Trade Commission regulates the furniture commerce and its sales pitches, etc. They have ruled on solid wood versus plywood and have indicated that there is a difference. That is, plywood is not solid wood. Specifically, The Federal Trade Commission has suitable for public annotation a consent business agreement with Taylor Woodcraft, Inc., settling charges that the enterprise violated Section 5 of the Ftc Act by deceptively claiming in promotional materials that its household furniture was constructed of solid maple or oak, when a whole of its pieces contained some veneered exposed surfaces.
So while plywood may be economy and easier to construct, it is no match for solid wood furniture. It is more of an fly route towards convenience and higher profits. Beware of manufacturers who claim to be selling solid wood furniture but use plywood or particleboard for most of the internal parts. Do not feel shy to ask for details from the salesperson before buying a piece. Buy something only if you are easily sure. If the salesperson is not forthcoming with genuine information, it is time to check an additional one store.
Plywood Or Solid Wood - Be Aware
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