Can You “See” Good Wood with Your Eyes?

Are you worried about spending big bucks on furniture made from questionable materials? To avoid this pitfall, you should learn how to distinguish different types of wood and assess their quality. The key is to look at the wood grain. Like a human fingerprint, wood grain is a natural, unchangeable characteristic. It becomes even more pronounced after the wood is stained. While other aspects might be faked, the wood’s inherent grain pattern can’t be altered.

In the Chinese furniture market, those who value cultural significance and collectibility often opt for red sandalwood or rosewood furniture, albeit at a higher price point. The next most popular choices are North American or European woods like walnut, cherry, maple, and oak. Due to concerns about pollution and health impacts from engineered wood furniture, solid wood has become trendy in recent years. Compared to engineered wood, solid wood furniture is more eco-friendly, healthier, and durable, typically falling in the mid to high-end price range. Budget-conscious consumers might choose teak, rubberwood, birch, or wood veneer furniture for better value.

So how can consumers identify wood types by their grain when buying furniture?

Related reading:

9 Tips to Avoid Buying Solid Wooden Furniture Pit

First off, “rosewood” isn’t a single species. It often refers to furniture made from various woods like Dalbergia, yellow rosewood, or pterocarpus. True rosewood takes a long time to grow, and due to high demand, prices keep rising. The current rosewood furniture market is a mixed bag, with new rosewood often substituted for old. Premium varieties like Indian rosewood or Hainan huanghuali were exclusive to imperial courts during the Ming and Qing dynasties, but these are now virtually extinct, with existing pieces mostly in auction houses or private collections. Average consumers rarely buy rosewood furniture; those who do are usually collectors with deep knowledge of the material who buy from reputable brands and are less likely to be deceived.

Quality rosewood furniture is known for its solid mortise and tenon joints, which hold together without nails. When buying, it’s crucial to test the structure’s tightness. Try lifting one leg of a rosewood chair and letting it drop – a crisp, solid sound indicates good structural integrity. You can also gently shake tables and chairs to test the sturdiness of the joints.

When choosing wood furniture, some situations are trickier to navigate:

Similar woods used for imitation:

For example, oak (xiang mu) versus rubberwood (xiang jiao mu). Despite the similar names in Chinese, these are entirely different woods with vastly different prices. Oak, native to the US, comes in white and red varieties. It’s high-quality, commonly used for furniture and veneers. Oak has distinct ray fleck patterns in straight or cross grains, with the straight grain being more attractive. It’s durable, long-lasting, with a nice feel, ideal for European-style furniture, but pricier. Rubberwood comes from rubber trees in subtropical regions of southern China and Southeast Asia. After rubber trees stop producing sap, their wood is used for furniture. Rubberwood is inferior in hardness, quality, grain, and performance. It contains organic matter that degrades easily, so it’s usually chemically treated. The color is inconsistent with blemishes and dark spots, and it’s prone to ant infestations. It’s also soft with an indistinct slanted grain and may cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals.

So, if you’re looking to buy oak furniture, don’t be fooled by claims that “oak is just short for rubberwood.” Oak furniture has a more beautiful grain and is pricier than rubberwood. If you’re unsure, ask the seller if it’s American oak and get it in writing. The US doesn’t produce rubberwood; it’s only found in China and Southeast Asia. Besides grain differences, oak feels heavier and harder, while rubberwood is softer and lighter. Oak has a distinctive ray fleck pattern and feels smooth to the touch, which rubberwood can’t replicate.

Other common substitutions include windmill palm wood for ebony, and birch for cherry. To distinguish these, you need to understand the grain differences of various woods. We’ve prepared a detailed table of wood grain identification to help with your furniture shopping.

  1. Oak: Heavier than rubberwood, with distinct ray fleck patterns and a good surface feel.
  2. Rubberwood: Faint, indistinct grain patterns.
  3. Pine: Soft wood with clear, simple grain patterns and color tones.
  4. Teak: Oily luster with uniform color and straight grain. Teak has distinct dark streaks (or “blood veins”) and oil spots. Finer, more numerous streaks indicate higher quality and older trees.
  5. Black walnut: Straight or irregular grain, with irregular patterns being more decorative and valuable. Coarse texture.
  6. Rosewood: Dark reddish-brown color. Mostly interlocked grain, though some areas may be straight. Close inspection always reveals some interlocked patterns.
  7. Cherry: Straight grain with narrow, brown pith flecks and small gum pockets. Fine texture.

Distinguishing between solid wood, wood-board combination, and wood veneer:

Pure solid wood furniture is rare in the current market, so be wary of price traps. Due to pollution concerns with engineered wood, more people are choosing solid wood furniture. However, consumer price expectations haven’t caught up, leading some sellers to pass off veneered furniture as solid wood.

In fact, pure solid wood furniture, especially made from a single wood type, is uncommon. Most “solid wood” furniture combines different woods or uses wood veneer. While mixed wood and veneered furniture aren’t necessarily low quality or unstable, be cautious of veneered furniture sold at solid wood prices.

Solid wood furniture has all parts made of solid wood. “Wood-board combination” furniture uses solid wood for visible parts like tabletops and chair frames, with engineered wood (like MDF or particleboard) for less visible areas. Veneered furniture is made from engineered wood with a thin layer of real wood on the surface, resembling solid wood but with a shorter lifespan. This is a common deception but relatively easy to spot. Veneered surfaces have clear but irregular grain patterns that don’t match on both sides of the furniture,check detail here.

Another common “fake solid wood” technique uses small, heavily processed wood pieces joined together (“finger-jointed boards“) as a base, then covered with wood veneer. Some sellers market furniture as being made from precious woods when only the visible parts use these materials, with cheaper woods used elsewhere.

Most “solid wood” furniture on the market uses North American black walnut, cherry, or maple. Lower-end options include teak and pine. Teak, while not aesthetically pleasing, is very stable but doesn’t hold value well. Pine is less stable and prone to damage but cheap, making it popular for children’s furniture that’s replaced frequently.

High prices don’t always guarantee good products, but low prices often mean high-risk products. What are some industry expert tips?

First, regarding pricing, high-quality solid wood furniture from reputable brands, especially imported from Northern Europe or North America, will be expensive but generally reliable. Some African woods, like African rosewood, are high-quality and relatively inexpensive due to abundant resources and less developed local markets. These woods are comparable to American imports in quality, with attractive grain, physical stability, and lower prices. However, consumers often gravitate towards familiar brands and may be skeptical of “African” wood. As a consumer, consider not just the material, price, and brand, but also the cultural value of the furniture. If you’re more concerned with quality and value for money than cultural significance, African imported wood furniture can be an excellent choice.

Beyond wood furniture, there’s a more alarming industry secret: most domestically produced engineered wood furniture in China exceeds formaldehyde limits by 50%. While some high-quality imported engineered wood furniture is safe and eco-friendly, most low-end domestic products significantly exceed safety standards. Contrary to popular belief, these harmful emissions don’t dissipate quickly – some can continue off-gassing for a lifetime. We strongly advise that if solid wood furniture is out of your budget, choose engineered wood furniture only from reputable brands with good track records. Opting for cheaper alternatives could lead to irreparable health damage and lasting regret.