Plantation Grown Rubber Wood & Parawood

Like so many other maple trees rubberwood is a sap producing tree and in its paticular case rubber is produced. Once a tree had fulfilled its rubber making life time it would be cut down and burned as useless wood. When this tree is farmed its sustainability feature is highly important. Today rubberwood is the most environmentally friendly lumber that is milled and used in furniture. Other types of wood used in the industry are specifically grown only for their lumber. However a rubberwood first completes nearly 25 years as a rubber producer before being turned into furniture. Once the tree dies it is then milled making it friendly in every sense of the word. There is absolutely no waste to this farmed lumber source.

 

Rubberwood has many names, rubber tree and in Thailand it is called parawood. Whatever the name it is called by one thing is for sure it is great for creating high end furniture. The dense grain, beautiful color, minimal shrinkage and ability to accept many finishes make it very popular. The fact that it is also environmentally sound does not hurt its acceptance either. Since it is allowed to run a full production of latex nothing is wasted. Many people misunderstand the name of  this fine specimen of wood.                                                                                                                        

 

The nature of the name of the wood is confusing enough, rubberwood invokes images of bouncing furniture when in fact this is one of the most durable hardwoods used in furniture making today. This member of the Euphorbiaceae  family is characterized by dense grain that is simply controlled in the kiln drying process. The lack of shrinkage makes for a perfect material from which to build furniture. The lumber is easy to work with and will take on many different finishes. For example rubberwood can be made to look like oak or rosewood, this can cause confusion though when it comes time to identify what type of wood a particular piece of furniture is made from.

 

At the time when vulcanization was made perfect, a process that kept rubber from degrading, production was augmented for the production of bike tires. When car productions increased so did the demand for rubber for the tires. By WW II, there was such a high demand for rubber that tires began to be manufactured from synthetic material. This led to a fall in rubber production until it was discovered in 1960 that the rubberwood tree had other uses. They figured out that it was a great wood for furniture as it was nearly as hard as oak.

 

In this day and age the rubber from the rubberwood is used primarily for erasers, condoms and gloves.

 

To finish a piece of rubberwood is not much different than other hard woods. To get that smooth even finish it will have to be sanded, the smoother the sanding the lighter the finish tends to turn out. A good trick to sanding is to see the wood with your hands. Instead of merely looking at it feel the wood for rough patches, these rough areas will stain darker than smoothe ones. I prefer to sand with a sanding block and a clean hand. It will not be hard if you are good at your technique and use 150 grit sandpaper. Do not forget you must sand with the grain and not against it.