This article aims to provide detailed information regarding mahogany solid wood and veneered furniture according to an Indonesian furniture craftsman perspective.
Also, revealing some of the facts of Indonesian wood furniture industry to address some false accusations against imported mahogany furniture from Indonesia.
Indonesian Mahogany Wood
Mahogany wood is a richly colored lumber among valuable timber species in the world. It is known for its unique pink color that evolves into deep reddish brown color as it ages.
Among many species of hardwoods that usually used to build wood furniture, mahogany is the most preferred by furniture makers because it has few knots and voids. The mahogany wood surface is smooth, features even grain pattern which makes it ideal for fine furnishing and wood crafts.
Although classified as hardwood, mahogany wood is lacking in stability. It absorbs moisture from the air at highest level compared to other popular woods in furniture manufacturing such as teak, oak, pine, etc.
In my experience, kiln dried mahogany lumber to 8% MC (Moisture Contents) will absorb moisture up to 15% – 18% within a few hours after it taken out from kiln dry facility.
Because of its instability proper construction and joinery are required when it used in solid wood furniture construction. The construction has to allow solid wood movement while it extracting and contracting through absorbing and releasing the humidity.
Mahogany solid wood vs. mahogany veneer furniture
You can easily find a plentiful information of mahogany solid wood and mahogany veneer furniture on the internet. They are written to educate customers in choosing between mahogany veneered furniture and mahogany solid wood furniture. Several articles make comparisons based on facts as you can read here, while most of them are written for sales promotion such as follows.
Some antique furniture shops suggest their customer build a controlled environment room to keep mahogany solid wood furniture from crack, split, or wrap.
Veneered furniture manufacturers pointing to the history of marquetry royal furniture which is employed lavish veneer construction.
Solid wood furniture manufacturers shout out “solid wood furniture is the best furniture pieces”.
They were all right, though slightly exaggerated.
Do we really need a controlled environment to keep new mahogany furniture?
It doesn’t matter how old it is, a mahogany solid wood furniture will absorb and releases moisture contents over the time. It will expand and shrink through seasons. The histories and the fact that they are green furniture pieces are the reasons some people prefer old furniture.
Most of the solid wood furniture made at the present still using the traditional construction method that has been proven over centuries. Avoid cross grains locking, raised panel floating inside frame, floating top table employed wooden clips are some of the old world furniture constructions are still used today in furniture manufacturing.
All of these methods aimed to enable the movement of the solid wood while it extracting and contracting through seasons. Furniture is made to furnish a room, it’s absurd to ask customers to build a special room for it.
Veneer, is it luxury furniture?
Referring to the fact that most of the royal furniture employed lavish veneer construction, it is undeniable a veneered furniture is a luxurious piece. Unfortunately, few of these papers pointed out that they were made of veneer over hardwoods construction.
It using the best available hardwood for structures to prevent wood movement that will damage the veneer. Smooth surface mahogany wood veneer glued onto red oak or maple hardwood is lavish over lavish.
Nowadays, most of the veneers glued onto plywood, particleboard, and fiberboard. You can easily find wardrobe cabinet, bookcases, and headboard which are made of solid wood and mahogany veneer glued onto MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) in online shops. I could not find any good reason to suggest people buy it.
Is solid wood the best wooden furniture?
As a wood furniture craftsman, I have to say “it depend on how it made”. As natural products, solid wood furniture has some disadvantages. It responds to its environment constantly, it is contracting and extracting through seasons. Therefore, the solid wood furniture may have a subtle distressed look.
However, solid wood furniture has some advantages compared to veneer over particle board furniture pieces.
Importing mahogany furniture from Indonesia.
There are several papers about Indonesian mahogany furniture here, here, and here, that written without any evidence and facts. I will uncover some facts of the Indonesian furniture industries against them.
Over the last 10 years, a tremendous market has unfolded in America for solid mahogany furniture manufactured in Indonesia.
The facts are : According to world atlas here Indonesia is not in top ten furniture exporting countries. The Universal Cargo report (here), China is in the lead, producing 58% of the furniture imported to the US. Vietnam (8%), Canada (7%), and Mexico (5%) hold the next 3 spots.
According to Indonesia Trade Department only about 4% of Indonesia wood furniture exported to the United States, most of them are teak garden furniture. I have no idea how a tremendous market unfolded for Indonesian mahogany furniture.
Given the natural growth of the wood in that country and an extremely low labor cost.
The statement sounds as if you can easily find mahogany timber in Indonesia’s forest. Any forest in Indonesia is owned by the state, divided into production and protection forest. The production forest is similar to other plantation where the planting and harvesting cycle strictly controlled.
Mahogany wood is indigenous to Americas, it was planted in Indonesia. But, at the present Indonesia is one of the Asian largest plantation that supplies genuine mahogany wood.
Just to be sure, each of mahogany timber that grown in Indonesia is planted either by the private farmers or state plantation.
Low labor cost in manufacturing of furniture is the most abusive content of the statement.
A woodworker receives a higher salary than a textile factory worker. Most of the woodworker in Indonesia familiar with woodworking machines such as the planer, jointer, molding, tenon mortise, and some of the hand tools.
An estimated 80% of the mahogany furniture manufactured in Indonesia has not been kiln-dried.
I believe the writer of the statement above walking from a craftsman to another craftsman to check whether the craftsmen kiln dried the wood or using a handheld fan to dry it, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and so on…
The fact is, it is almost impossible to use newly felled mahogany wood to build furniture without kiln dry it. A newly felled mahogany wood contain about 35% moisture contents, it will need months time to dry it naturally.
Most mahogany furniture craftsmen in Indonesia are small-scale business that works according to customer orders. Usually, lead time to delivery is 30 days.
They do not have enough money to stock timber, working in limited time, they have to work efficiently by simply buy kiln dried wood to work with.
Several medium scale craftsmen which working on full container order buy lumber from a timber auction and dry it to the kiln dry shops for about 30 days.
And guess what, other than kiln dry shops there are sawmills, turning shops, tenon-mortise shop, and several other shops related to woodworking.
Rather than investing a dovetail woodworking machines for making few drawers, it is more effective for small craftsmen to bring the wood with him to work in dovetail shops.
Additionally, Indonesian solid mahogany furniture is popularly finished with a formaldehyde compound
In Indonesia, some of the teak furniture manufacturers use formaldehyde compound to make the teak wood uniform in color. It change the sapwood color into dark brown.
Also, melamine used for sanding spray because teak wood has a coarse grain and large pores.
Those who knows about mahogany wood finishes will avoid to use melamine for sanding-spray or coating protection. This is because the mahogany wood surface is smooth and so dense. Instead of entering the wood pores melamine will dry into a thin layer on the wood, the sanding process between sealer spray will remove it entirely.
Furthermore, hand finished meaning human hands do the finishing. None of these hands owners will survive in a few years if they live and breathing with melamine around them for 10 hours a day.
Even the teak furniture makers have avoided the using of melamine for finishes.
Do you know? In Indonesia melamine and nitrocellulose lacquer is sold in same price. There is no reason at all to use it for furniture finishes.
The success with which Indonesian mahogany has sold in America has prompted importers to pursue other foreign markets in recent years.
I have shown you the facts and statistic about the furniture trade between USA and other countries, Indonesia is not including in to ten countries. I did not understand why the writer pointed his finger to Indonesia for his narrowing tremendous market. It will be mush more useful to discredit China that flooded 58% furniture market in US.
Teak furniture dominated Indonesia furniture industries, teak garden furniture factory use modern woodworking machine and employed low cost labor for production. Most of the teak garden furniture sell in the shops around the worlds is made in Indonesia.
In contrast to teak furniture industry, mahogany furniture is labor intensive industry which employs half old experienced carpenters and wood carving artisans. Indonesia mahogany furniture is only made in Jepara, a small district in Indonesia which famous for wood carving tradition. The district produces mahogany furniture about 10% of the total wood furniture exported outside Indonesia.
Conclusion
The solid wood furniture and veneered furniture has it own advantages and disadvantages, comparing hundreds years veneered wooden furniture to new solid wood furniture is unfair. In 18th the veneer is glued onto strong and robust hardwood, while on these days it glue onto particle board.
Indonesia mahogany furniture is made by small scale furniture manufacturers with limited capital, the limitation requires them to work efficiently by kiln dry the wood. These small scale furniture makers exporting unfinished mahogany furniture, or finished pieces according to customer specifications.
Most of them have a production contract with a customer, they are not allowed to work on other customer orders. You are only have a chance to do business with one of them if their existing customer terminate the contract. If by chance you find a website that offers wholesale mahogany furniture, believe me it is a broker which buy furniture form the craftsmen and stock in a warehouse.
Last but not least, one should not discredit the other without any evidence.