What makes wood a beautiful material?

Wood is a unique material!

It delights many of our senses, feeling tactile to the touch, has the most iconic smell, especially when just harvested, and above all else, delights the eye its visual appearance.

It’s an incredibly strong and versatile material too, being both renewable and sustainable, and can be made into all manner of items. From solid timber, used in furniture construction, to wafer thin veneers that have a multitude of uses, it can enhance many materials.

Ultimately though, nothing is more beautiful than simply using wood on its own.

Each collection in our product portfolio has different characteristics and appeal, and within each range, no two woods are ever truly identical!

Colour

The specific colour of a species is achieved due to the infiltrates, that the tree draws from the soil where it grows. Sometimes referred to as the extractives, this is the primary reason why there can be so much variation in colour across even the same species of wood.

An oak or walnut tree grown and harvested in England will have a very different ‘make-up’ to the same species of tree grown in the USA. Also the colour of the wood is most likely to change when exposed to both light and air, adding to the difference in shades.

Whilst upon first glance, our ranges might appear uniform, like all veneered wooden products, part of the very charm is knowing that your wooden wall panelling or veneer light fitting is actually unique!

Grain

Many of us refer to the ‘grain of wood’ as the naturally occurring pattern we see, but technically that’s wrong! The term ‘grain’ actually refers to the orientation of the wood’s cells, and in general there are six types of grain including straight, irregular, interlocked and wavy.

Our portfolio of wood veneers includes exquisite and unusual species, with almost awe inspiring grains – just one of the many reasons why our wood veneers are used in the luxury automotive sector.

Figure

This term is used to denote the surface pattern of the wood and depicts the key features of the woods’ finish. ‘Birds-Eye’ or ribboning for example occurs when an interlocked grain successively grows in different directions, causing the distinct rippling effect.

Knots

Characteristic knots are formed in one of two ways, either by a branch growing out of the main trunk of the tree or when a branch becomes damaged.

Commonly known as a tight knot, the growth formation occurs when the knot becomes contain within the trunk, whereas a loose knot is formed when a branch becomes injured and the centre of the knot is made up of dead wood.

Our veneer Lusso panels appear to be nearly identical, as they are engineered using consecutive veneer layers, fixed onto a rigid backboard. In this way feature knots will appear across the surface of each panel rather than only appearing on one piece, as would be the case if a solid piece of timber was used instead!

Delight your senses and discover the understated beauty of wood at The Wood Veneer Hub.