Waru wood for furniture

Waru tree (Hibiscus liliaceous) is a species of trees that are quite common in Indonesia. The tree grows well in tropic areas with rainfall range from 800 to 2,000 mm. Waru tree can live in coastal sandy beaches, mangrove forests, and also in the riparian area. We can find the trees grow wild in the woods and sometimes are planted in the yard or on the side of the road as a shade tree. In the fertile soil, the wood will have straight stem, but in the infertile soil it tend to grow with bent trunk, with broadly branches and leaves.
The tree has many benefits. The leaves have a rough texture that is very helpful for the fermentation process in the manufacture of tempe (fermented soy bean). The leaves can be cooked as vegetables. It also can be used to the hair treatment and even as medicine for some diseases. The waru tree has a thick skin that will produce strong fibers that are commonly used as material for rope. Now the fiber is often also used to be used to make nets, bags or other handicraft products.


 

The uses waru in the woodworking industry is not much. It is considered as the low quality wood. It has medium hardness with vague grain character. It doesn’t have nice appearance as the teak or mahogany wood. This wood has traditionally been widely used as building materials, wheel for cart, and handicraft. But lately the wood is also used as material to make furniture. The wood give advantage since it is cheap and easy to be handled. The wood has medium hardness, tough and can be dried easily. The wood is good choice to e used as the inside part or support part at the furniture.

Some furniture factories also use the wood to make the exposed parts. With proper construction it is quite strong to make cabinets, tables and even chair. With proper model and finishing actually we still can make nice appearance product with this wood. This wood has a white base color with bluish gray, purple false or purplish brown, or greenish. The light basic color gives flexibility in finishing color choices. But since it does not have strong grain character, then it won’t give the beautiful appearance as the premium wood. The wood has soft grain texture with small and shallow pores. It can be finished in close pores quite easily. It absorbs stain quite good, then we can apply finishing material on without any problem. It also can be finished with paint or solid color with good result. The soft grain texture and less pores make it can be painted quite easy. We can get close pores finish without any filler application. We can make the clean looked solid color with any color, or we can make the antique paint finish with quite easy process. 

furniture made of waru wood in combination with mdf
 

The waru wood is susceptible to get attacked by insects. The treatment with anti insect chemical is recommended to preserve the wood.