Emerging alternatives to teak wood
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Rubber wood is sturdy, cost-effective and cheaper than teak. Being a late entrant to the market, its features are now becoming clearer, says RANJANI GOVIND
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FLAWLESS FURNITURE: The width of rubber wood boards may be small because of narrow trees but broad jointless panels emerge with machined upgradations.
It was one of those recent nondescript exhibitions in the city that proved to be an eye-opener to the notable features of rubber wood. Wheatish brown gleaming wooden artefacts and accessories, and furniture pieces including artistically carved doors made up the Kerala-based Hari Menon’s stall ‘Wooden Creations.’ “We are only dealers of rubber wood, but knowing the salient features and appreciable characteristics of rubber wood, we were advised by ou
r business consultants to include a huge panelling that described the true make-up of the natural material for taking our first exhibition experience across,” said the Menon brothers.
Teak and rose wood may be considered the king and queen of wood but rubber wood is just making its presence felt because of its nature, personality and temperament. “How many people can afford teak,” is a practical query at the stall, let alone the recent trend of rubber wood campaigners highlighting the advantages of the wonder tree, hitherto untapped for commercial use until a decade ago.
Consider the advantages of the wonder tree:
- Rubber wood is 30-40 per cent cheaper than teak wood and 20 per cent cheaper than country wood.
- It is lighter than teak but with good density, its resistance to screw and nail withdrawal forces is significant, making it suitable for carving too.
- A rubber tree matures anytime between 7-16 years, but a teak takes 50-70 years for allowing itself to be a seasoned medium for woodwork.
- Rubber wood can be termed eco-friendly as it is a plantation product and new saplings are planted immediately after the trees are cut down. - Rubber wood is usually in white, yellow or cream, an ideal base for any kind of outer finish.
- Rubber grains are generally symmetrical…just right for people who love uniform spread of grains. But with all these, why where the trees in deep slumber, and thought about only for rubber extraction?
According to Anil R. Pillai of Rubberwood India, Kottayam (undertaking of the Rubber Board, Ministry of Commerce, branded as Indiawood), “This wood come to light hardly a decade ago, and Rubberwood India has been actively promoting doors in India, and we have taken upon the responsibility of creating awareness in people regarding the advantages through the media. It is a question of time before people realise that rubber wood is green gold, and it’s not worth running hither and thither for green platinum.”
People also took time to accept rubber wood for furniture; it’s a mental block that the tree is used for extraction of rubber alone. Of course the concept of tapping the tree for purposes other than resin withdrawal was an amazing entrepreneurial move. Educating people on the tree and its value additions will increase the respect for the movement, he says.
Hari Menon of Wooden Creations says there is a steady increase in awareness, acceptability and sales of rubber wood. But we should also consider the fact that technological leaps in chemical treatment for keeping termites and borers at bay were relatively recent steps that helped the tree gain international acceptance for home use.
Quality features
Interior Designer Kamlesh, obsessed with wood in his interior makeovers, always reiterates that rubber wood is cost-effective and the features may suit mass-produced furniture. But the predictable uniform grains may not appeal to high-end connoisseurs who may prefer some exclusivity in their pieces. “So patterning the logs to look creative is the key in using rubber wood,” he says. “There is an excitement in the grain-spread which is the speciality present in the age-old timber like teak and pine. The inherent and irregular course of grains in teak and the sudden appearance of knots in pine are what makes them different,” adds Kamlesh.
Disadvantages
“The limitations in width used to pose restrictions in furniture making. But even that is overcome now with state-of-the-art machinery which is able to conceal the joints in a strikingly patterned approach, although one knows that teak can give long disjointed lengths. But again, rubber scores as shorts lengths come in handy for dismantled pieces of furniture,” says Kamlesh.
Perhaps this is the reason international assemble-furniture giants such as Allen Key Furniture and IKEA use rubber wood too in their smaller segments. They are ideal for doors as they are sturdy with no bends and curves.
Treatment
After the extraction of rubber, the tree is uprooted and is treated for a year before it is given a lifetime guarantee tag at Rubberwood India in Kottayam where their boards are machined to bring in 8 x 4 ft panels of various thickness suited for entrances, modular kitchens or furniture.
Depending on the finish, the rubber wood doors cost about Rs.3,500-Rs. 7,000, with the carved ones going up to Rs.10,000. Rubber wood can be tapped for any kind of furniture making as it has three coats of polyurethane that makes it scratch-proof too.
Rubber tree was a native of Brazil and is now grown in 10 million hectares in tropical regions of Asia, Africa and America. India is the third largest producer of natural rubber with 85 per cent grown in Kerala and the rest in North-Eastern States.
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