Mix or not to mix woods and where?

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Mixing different woods on a piece of furniture?


As far as I know it is common to use cheaper woods like beech instead of tropical or expensive ones for those structural parts of a piece of furniture that won’t be seen at all.

Is this practice considered a synonym of a cheap piece of furniture?

What about drawers? Does it make sense making the front in, let’s say, hard maple and the sides and bottom in beech or other similar wood?

Or even a more extreme example, the front in bubinga, cocobolo or burl oak and the sides and bottom in beech?

Is there any common practice as far as that is concerned??

Any input will be greatly appreciated.
 
I believe the common practice, even on the high-end stuff, is pretty much as you described. The interior wood such as drawer bottoms and sides is typically something plain and economical. (Keep in mind that compared to woods like bubinga or burl oak, something like maple is still plain and economical, but more durable than some of the softer woods.)
 
Toni, if Beech is a "cheaper" wood where you are, it would do just fine for drawer sides, backs, etc. I use Poplar for most of my drawer sides and backs, but I have quite a bit of QS White Oak cut offs I got at a good price and I use that some too. I try to avoid using high priced hard woods for parts that are never seen, especially for things I make for just family. If I were building a high dollar piece for a client, I might stay with the primary wood used for the project for these to "protect" the value, but that's just me.
 
From watching the twins on Antiques Roadshow and Roy Underhill, they often say that early American furniture was made with whatever wood was available. Frequently there was no consideration given to what was used where as they took a practical approach. They are the experts and get the big bucks. But, I don't know that I have ever seen a piece of furniture where the better woods were hidden and the less attractive, or less durable, were in front or on top. I think y'all have summed it up quite well.
 
The interior woods are called secondary wood, and are often of a cheaper species.

Drawer sides are the borderline between primary and secondary woods. When I am being fancy, I use maple for drawer sides - especially with wood slides... I don't like the look of poplar, and I generally run a thinner drawer side (hard with poplar which tends to warp between planing and assembly).

My favorite "traditional wood" is a windsor chair, where the curved back is steamed oak, the spindles rived oak, the seat pine (easier to carve the butt contour), the arms cherry, and the legs maple so the turned detail is sharp. The traditional black color is to hide the differences in the wood. So do different woods make a low quality piece? Hardly.
 
It is not a "Cheap" practice but more than a "Frugle" practice as there are reasons that "Secondary woods" are used in the carcass construction.

The properties of the wood play a important part of the construction. Often we construct of woods selected for their beauty rather than strength or endurance. In those cases we need to construct the "backbone" of the piece of structurally sound material, also we need to use Stable materials that have a predictable behavior in changing climate conditions.

Is it "Cheap" less expensive, yes but I have some fine pieces that are antique and well over 100-200 years old each of them have beautiful wood fronts but also have secondary woods in the rear, under, or behind. I also have new pieces that are of great quality which have secondary woods in the rear, under, or behind, etc. This is common practice.

Of course, it is one way to determine if it is hand made, as few "Factory" pieces are solid, all the the way through, end to end, top to bottom, the same wood.
 
Toni, if Beech is a "cheaper" wood where you are, it would do just fine for drawer sides, backs, etc. I use Poplar for most of my drawer sides and backs, but I have quite a bit of QS White Oak cut offs I got at a good price and I use that some too.

Hi Billy, well I said cheaper with respect to oak, hard maple, cherry and some other even more expensive than those mentioned. Poplar/Pine is more used on cheap and not so cheap sofa frames.

Beech is used here, not as a cheap wood but the cheapest of the hard ones.
A piece of furniture with a drawer with solid beech sides, is a mid/ mid-high range price level of furniture or a piece of furniture that is more than 20 years old.
I always tend to look when people dispose off their furniture to salvage those drawers and I must say they they are getting scarce.

Nowadays they are made either of chip board veneered with paper imitations of wood or MD board.

I have the feeling that wood is much more expensive and difficult to buy here than there in US but that should be discussed in a different thread, shouldn't it?
 
Trying to summarize what has been said already, for what I'm thankful to all of you my last question/comment would be:

It is my feeling that when making a high priced piece of furniture, secondary woods as described by Charlie Plesums should be not the cheapest but obviously cheaper than the most priced woods/parts used.

Making a drawer with a bubinga front with poplar sides and bottom I think it would make to perceive the piece as not "balanced" ( if I may say so) because the exagerated difference in price/quality, (although I have a 130 year old mahogany chest of drawers were their sides and bottom are made with wood that looks as if it's been salvaged from pallets or crates).

Or what about the same bubinga drawer with plywood sides? wouldn't it make perceiving the piece as not so valuable?
Wouldn't it be something like having a Ferrari with bike tyres

What the "pros" of this forum do in their projects?

I do not know if I'm conveying my thoughts properly or just thinking out loud.

I hope that some of you will understand what I'm trying to say/ask and put it in a more understandable written form
 
toni,
if you`re building for the enjoyment of building and building pieces for family then i would place asthetics on par with function....
but i`d draw the line at using burl or quilted wood as a secondary wood, using a like colored piece of the same species only without figure for your secondary wood should offer you the "balance" you`re asking about.
tod
 
Of everyone on here, I am probably the guy that mixes wood species the most, heck I got to in order to make my wooden models jump out, at least part to part, and area to area of the machines. Perhaps a bit out of context I know, but I do enjoy "mixing things up" and seeing what combinations go together and which ones don't.

As many of you know, I live in Maine and have a large woodlot, and so I often combine woods just as they are in nature. For instance Ash and Maple like to grow together so I've been known to mix those guys and girls together. Beech and Yellow Birch like wet soils, so those I have placed together. Beech and Basswood are another good combination that you find as friends in the woodlot growing side by side. Stuff like that.

It gets a bit goofy mixing hardwoods and softwoods, but there again my latest project, I am doing just that. Using Spruce to resonate the sound of the music box, and Basswood for the rest of the jewelry box.

Does this mixing always work? Heck no. Its pretty hard to screw up a custom wooden model like this old bulldozer I made as can be seen in the first picture, but in the second picture, mixing wood species....in this case Ash and Oak...did not work at all. It was unfortunate because this box was used in our wedding to collect all the cards. The Johnson Crest came out good, but the oak sides and ash front just did not work.

Side_View_Cat_60-453x336.jpg


Gift_Card_Box-216x143.jpg
 
toni,
but i`d draw the line at using burl or quilted wood as a secondary wood, /QUOTE]

Hi Tod.

I completely agree with you on this, I truly believe that it would be a waste using precious woods as secondary wood or in framing parts.

What do you do on your pieces? When do you build them up all in the same wood and when do you use secondary wood?

Will a high end customer ask you to make a piece all in the same solid wood?
or usually they let you do as your experience demands?
 
hi toni,
most of my "family" stuff is built out of the same species...i did go through a period a while back using different colored inlays though:eek:
most clients will defer to my judgement, and my judgement is always based on my gut after talking to the client and their family and seeing their home.
it wouldn`t make sense to build hepplewhite style furniture for a batch of toddlers to climb on any more than building a country style dining table for a formal dining room....
use common sense and good judgement and you`ll be fine.......but in the end the customer is the one who writes the checks;)
 
I would not consider the use of a secondary wood as an indicatrion of poor furniture. I think your fine to use cherry drawer fronts with alder or whatever is a decent lower priced material in your area as an example.

Good places for secondary wood are particular to the piece but, drawer sides, dust panels, rear panels (if they aren't going to show), moulding frames that support the actual moulding, case tops that will be covered by a finish top, etc.
 
Hi Tony :wave:,
The feed back you have received has been very valuable, and, as can be seen there are many different ways of looking at the same question. Here is what I do, good or bad, this is what I do.
Depending on the drawer size and the feeling I have about it's need for strength will determine the thickness plywood I use. In most kitchen drawers, desk drawers up to about 6" tall and drawers for CD's and DVD's I use 1/2" baltic birch. There seem to be few voids and aesthetically I look at it as though it is stacked veneers glued together. It is stable, strong and with a 1/4" round over on the top, inside and out has a look I like, when it gets a clear coat. I seldom stain or paint the drawers as I like the clean light tones of the birch. I then use 1//4" maple or birch ply for the bottoms, some times oak ply if I think it works better aesthetically. Mind you, I never do the wooden drawer slides. I think my clients are expecting the drawers to slide with great mechanical precision rather than the hand made quality of precise antique furniture. If the drawers are larger and need to be stronger, I go to 3/4" plywood, either birch or maple. Iwill then cap the top of the plywood with solid stock so I can soften the edges with a router or just by hand sanding. This is my way for file cabinet drawers, which would have a 1/4" rabbet for the floor, but with a larger dresser type drawer, say 22"X42" I would use a 1/2" baltic birch floor to help stabilize the entire drawer.
That is just what I do.
Shaz :D
 
Hi Shaz!

Yes, all the feedback I'm having is really great! If I had to write a common denominator in a sentence it would be "use common sense" wich is something that always works, (although common sense is the least common of them as we say here).

However, your thorough explanation which I appreciate a lot, has taken me to realise how different is the wood industry here from USA.

I'm referring to the different types of plywood you have there, I'll have to make some inquirys but as far as I know (which is not much) we do not have so many different types of them such as oak ply, baltic birch ply or maple ply.

Or if we have them available most probably they will be only available to professionals and in more or less large quantities (not just a single board).

I'll make some research and find it out.
 
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