Can solid wood furniture be comparable to compressed wood variations?

A question of quality verses convenience and practicality. Weighing up the benefits and value of quality wood furniture over lesser priced alternatives.

When it comes to decisions that affect your lifestyle and home the replacement or acquisition of furniture could have a major impact on your finances. We have two choices as to what material we could have our furniture made from; solid wood and compressed wood fibre. Solid wood furniture would be the more expensive, premium choice in this situation as fibreboard is a recycled wood alternative, where the wood is compressed and glued together to form a firm, workable material. This wood board does not however look like wood so a thin veneer wood texture is attached to the surfaces.

So what are the benefits of using compressed wood boards? Mainly that it typically costs less than solid wood and that is can be easily recycled. It is also a lighter material and therefore can be moved to different locations easier. Some designs can even be disassembled and then reassembled when moved to a new location in the house or another home.

If the choice is simple that of cost then it is possible to still enjoy real wood furniture without the high price tag. Furniture can be made from woods that are generally inexpensive, sustainable and fast growing like Pine and Tulip. There is also the issue of branding. Some furniture manufacturers do charge a premium regardless of what the items are made from. If you can find independent manufacturers then you will probably make a saving and may even receive a higher quality, better made product. Many independent manufacturers do offer a bespoke service if you are wanting furniture for kitchens and bedrooms.

Fibreboard is known to bend under sustained load; like for instance, if you have had a TV resting on a table for any length of time, you will notice that the table will have bowed under the weight. It is for this reason you may choose not to use fibreboard if the furniture has to be load bearing.

Solid wood furniture is easier to maintain and is generally a more resilient material. You might of experienced that when you move to a new home or move the furniture to a new room your chest of drawers or your wardrobe came apart at the joints because the fibreboard couldn't withstand the force of moving the overall weight of the item.

If the furniture is regularly used, such as a dinning table it will acquire dints and scratches or the finish might be rubbed off. These imperfections can be repaired with ease and little if any expense but when you damage compressed fibreboard it would be better just to replace the item. Solid wood can sometimes look better after it has seen some use developing a patina or lived in look.

Both types of furniture material have their uses under different usage situations but solid wood will always be the better choice. You may think that it is expensive but bespoke made furniture can be comparable to branded self assembled fibreboard, you will get the beauty, quality and durability of solid wood for less than you think.

Aspect Pine are manufacturers of bespoke, hand crafted solid wood furniture for use throughout the home. For more information about solid wood furniture please visit http://www.aspectpine.co.uk/

When we cooked on open fires.

When I was a young boy my grandparents lived in a remote cottage in Wales. It was a wonderful cottage with a huge garden where they grew all their own fruit and vegetables. They even kept chickens and a pig. 

The main room was the parlour, and it contained a huge fire range with a massive chimney from which hung chains on which they would suspend a big black kettle over the ever burning open fire. The fire also heated an oven to one side and a boiler to the other. All their cooking was done on the range over the open fire. As a small boy I remember toasting the most delicious toast in the world on a toasting fork held close to the flames.

In the days before the television took its place, the kitchen hearth was the centre of family life. As well as being the place where food was cooked, it was also the main gathering point, the focus of all that went on in the family; in fact focus is the Latin word for fireplace.

Although things are very different today, there is nothing quite like relaxing with family and friends in front of a log burning stove. It is a very different kind of warmth from the warmth you get from central heating. It is focussed warmth, and something to focus on visually, and it creates a very special feeling of being relaxed and content. That welcoming warm glow from those slowly burning logs penetrates through to the very soul. 

A recent symposium in Leeds was about open stove cooking. It was called ‘Open Hearth Cookery’ and covered such things as the Roman technique of cooking over ashes and recreating ancient English dishes cooked over a ‘chafing dish’ which is a sort of portable grate; something like a cross between an old fashioned grate and a modern charcoal barbeque. 

Cooking over an open hearth is a craft that in many ways has influenced cuisine throughout Europe and most of the recipes that we use today were first created for cooking over an open hearth. Only recently have they been adapted for cooking in a modern kitchen. Modern cooking is far easier that it was back in those days, but there is little doubt that the flavours are not so good.

The Leeds Stove open hearth cooking symposium included advice on how to control the heat, which requires a knowledge of how the fire operates along with a knowledge of how different kinds of wood burn. Not all woods are good for cooking; generally hardwoods are best. Oak, ash, and hard maple are good, though any woods that generates an even intense heat and many red hot cinders and coals will do. Blazing fires may look good, but they are not very useful for cooking.

Perhaps it is certain nostalgia for the taste of cooking on an open stove that feeds our passion for barbeques. Cooking over hot charcoal is certainly the next best thing to cooking over an open hearth. According to a famous online encyclopaedia, barbecue originated in America in the 1800s when cowboys on Western cattle drives used them to slow cook tough cuts of meat such as brisket. (If you have never eaten brisket that has been slowly barbecued for 24 hours, then try it; it is tender and perfectly delicious.) Unfortunately, today charcoal barbecues are being replaced by gas barbeques, which are not the same at all. 

One technique that we learned at the Leeds stove cooking symposium was to cook on the hot surface of a wood burning stove using a Dutch oven, which is a cast iron cooking pot with a tight fitting lid. You can monitor the temperature using a stove chimney magnetic thermometer. We intent to try to slow cook a joint of brisket this way; we’ll let you know how we get on. 

The Leeds Stove Centre has many different multi fuel stoves to choose from. Visit http://www.leedsstovecentre.co.uk/

Selecting the best wood for your wood burning stove.

When it comes to choosing the best wood for your wood burning stove, not all woods are the same. Here we will look at the different kinds of wood that you can use and we will offer some advice making the best choices.

Moisture content
Moisture content is very important. ‘Green’ logs with a high moisture content will be difficult to light and they will produce much less heat as much of the heat that they generate when they burn will be taken up by evaporating the water that they contain when then goes up the chimney as steam.
They also produce much more tar and smoke because they burn at a lower temperature. This tar and smoke will blacken the glass of your door and it will also deposit gunk on the inner lining of your chimney which means that you will need to carry out more maintenance.

Seasoning and drying
Freshly sawn logs can have up to 60% moisture contents so in order to reduce the moisture content of your logs, it is necessary to either season them or kiln dry them. Seasoning typically takes two years and reduced the moisture content to 20% to 30% and kiln dried logs have a moisture content typically of 15% to 20%.
You can either season the logs yourself by keeping them in a place sheltered from the rain and that allows air to circulate freely. Alternatively you can buy pre-seasoned logs or kiln dried logs. Kiln dried are the most expensive; seasoned are cheaper and unseasoned are the cheapest.
You can get some idea of how dry your wood is from its weight.

Hardwood or softwood
Generally hardwood is the best choice but it does need to be properly dried or seasoned. Here is a table that shows how well different kinds of woods burn.

 For more information on wood burning stoves please visit http://www.leedsstovecentre.co.uk

Type	Details	Quality
Ash	Excellent wood; hot and slow burning. Best when dry.	Very good
Beech	Excellent wood; hot and slow burning. Best when dry.	Very good
Hawthorn	Slow burn with good heat output.	Very good
Thorn	Top wood for burning with steady flame - high heat output with minimum smoke.	Very good
Yew	Top wood for burning with steady flame - high heat output with minimum smoke.	Very good
Apple	Excellent wood that when dry bums slowly and steadily	Good
Birch	Hot burning but burns quickly in small quantities - can be burnt unseasoned.	Good
Cedar	Good burning wood with long heat output. Can crackle and spit.	Good
Cherry	Slow burner with good heat output. Must be dry.	Good
Hazel	Is a good but fast burning wood and produces best results when allowed to season.	Good
Hornbeam	Good burner but needs to be dry.	Good
Lilac	Good kindling wood and good burner.	Good
Maple	Good flame and heat.	Good
Oak	Good slow burning wood when dry.	Good
Pear	Good slow burning wood when dry.	Good
Plum	Good burner with high heat output.	Good
Horse Chestnut	Good burner in stoves but tends to spits - don't use in open fire.	Good
Pine	Good flame but can produce smoke and tar.	Good
Elm	Reasonable burner but must be dry.	Medium
Larch	Reasonable burner but must be dry. Can cause deposits.	Medium
Laurel	Good flame, medium heat output. Must be dry.	Medium
Sycamore	Good flame, medium heat output. Must be dry.	Medium
Sweet Chestnut	Medium output when dry but spits. Don't use in open fires.	Medium
Alder	Poor heat output and fast burn.	Poor
Chestnut	Poor burn, low heat	Poor
Firs	Poor burning wood with low heat output and causes deposits	Poor
Holly	Fast burning with good flame but poor heat output.	Poor
Spruce	Poor heat output and fast burn.	Poor
Willow	Difficult to burn	Poor
Laburnum	Very smoky wood - avoid,	Poor - avoid
Poplar	Very smoky wood - avoid.	Poor - avoid