PLANK SCRUTINY

Aaron Foeste, craftsman and founder of wood design firm Arthur Zaaro, tells us how to assess the quality of wood.

HOW DOES ONE TELL REAL WOOD FROM FAKE WOOD?

One of the easiest ways is to look at the end grain of the furniture. Check if the grain that runs across the piece continues to the sides. Normally, when it’s fake “wood”, you won’t see the continuity.

DOES WOOD FROM SOUTH-EAST ASIA WARP FASTER THAN EUROPEAN OR AMERICAN WOOD?

Don’t use the word warp; it means wood that is going out of shape. Use the term expand and contract instead, which is what wood does when seasons change. If you were to bring wood from Europe or American here, expansion would occur because of high humidity levels. This means you’ll find a chest of drawers, for example, sticking together a little bit. It’s not that it’s warping or cracking, the wood is just expanding and becoming a bit bigger.

Conversely, in Europe and US where they have winter and summer, the wood moves every season. So, when you are walking on the wooden floor and it is squeaking, it’s always in the winter because the boards have shrunk and they can move.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WOOD FROM ASIA AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD?

Everybody likes what they don’t have. In Singapore, there’s a beautiful wood called nyatoh that is sold as exotic Asian hardwood in the US. But, if we sell it to Singaporeans here, they don’t think much of it. Similarly, Singaporeans find pine exotic but, in the US, we throw it away or make wood pellets out of it. It’s really about what you don’t have.