HARD WOODS AND SOFT WOODS

Hard woods

Teak - Grows in Indonesia, India, and Central America. Generally straight grained with a coarse, uneven texture, medium luster and an oily feel. Yellow brown to dark golden brown heartwood and grayish or white sapwood. Moderately hard and heavy, with a low stiffness and shock resistance. Works reasonbly well with hand or machine tools and has good turning and carving properties and also stains and finishes well. It has many uses such as indoor and out door furniture, paneling and flooring.

White Ash - Grows in the USA and Canada. Generally straight grained with a coarse texture,pale-brown heartwood and almost white sapwood.Moderately heavy, hard, strong, and tough with moderately high shock resistance.Machines fairly well with machine tools although turning and mortising properties are marginal. Glues, screws, and nails satisfactorily, Stains and finishes well. Used for furniture, baseball bats, ladders,. chairs and tool handles.

Beech - Grows in Europe and southeast Asia. Hard and heavy, with high bending and crushing strength and moderately high stiffness and shock resistance.Machines well but can be difficult to work by hand. Tends to split - pre-drilling recommended for screws and nails. Stains and finishes well. Exceptionally good for steam bending. Possibly the most popular general purpose furnitur wood.

European Elm - Occurs in temperate regions of Europe and western Asia.
Typically cross grained with dull brown heartwood and pale sapwood. Moderately heavy and hard with low stiffness, shock resistance and bending strength.Can be difficult to work in that wild grain can tear or cause binding. Glues, screws, nails and finishes satisfactorily. Used forturned items, cabinets, caskets, decorative veneers, paneling and chopping blocks.

Soft Wood


Douglas-Fir - Grows in western United States and Canada; introduced to UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Generally straight, sometimes wavy grained with a medium to fairly coarse texture. Yellowish to orange-red heartwood and whitish to reddish white sapwood.Quite variable in terms of color, weight, strength and working properties but frequently of average weight with moderate to high strength, moderate shock resistance, and high stiffness.

True Cedar - Grows in northern Africa, middle East, and India. Includes cedar of Lebanon, Atlantic cedar, Atlas cedar, and deodar cedar. Generally straight grained although Atlantic and Lebanon cedars often knotty. Works fairly well with hand or machine tools although knots and in-grown bark can be troublesome. Holds screws and nails well and polishes to a nice finish.Some uses include furniture, cabinetry, doors, and interior joinery.

European Yew - Grows throughout Europe, southern Asia, and northern Africa. Typically straight grained, sometimes curly and irregular, with an even, medium texture. Moderately heavy and hard with medium strength, relatively low stiffness and shock resistance. Works fairly well with hand or machine tools but irregular grain and knots can cause problems. Turns quite well. Pre-drilling required for screwing or nailing.Valued for turnery, carving, archery bows, and other bent parts (such as Windsor chair parts). Also used for garden furniture and reproduction furniture.

WOOD

Wood

wood has been used as a structural material and as a decorative one for thousands of years, to provide things such as shealter, furintuer and dcrative peaces. wood is still one of the most widly used materials in the world with uses such as paper and other things. There are two differet types of wood around and they are soft woods and hard woods.



sourse of wood
wood is a natural resourcs and is found all over the world with different species found in loads of different places. The UK sources 80% of its wood from other places around the world. wood is also a reneable resourcs and so it wont run out but we have to keep planting now trees to keep it that way.

Softwood
Softwood is a renewable source and if fairly easy to obtain. The trees are cut down and afterward new trees can be planted in place. The trees that yield softwood are fast to grow and therefore are easily renewable. However in some cases the trees are cut from forests in witch animals live and are not replanted, this causes problems with the ecosystems. When buying softwood it is important to check that it is from a sustainable source.


Hardwood
Hardwood, similar to softwood, is a renewable source however it is much harder to sustain as it takes much longer to grow; this makes hardwood much more expensive. Hard wood is sustainable but is often cut from no sustainable sources and again this has negative effects on the environment.

Types of Trees

There are two types of trees deciduous trees and coniferous. Deciduous: trees are known as broadleaf trees because the leaves are generally larger and wider than those of conifers. The larger leaf size means a greater surface area for photosynthesis, but it also mean the leaf is too fragile to withstand winter conditions. Therefore, most deciduous trees drop their leaves in autumn. Coniferous: trees keep their leaves throughout the year, shedding only the oldest leaves. Usually these leaves are lower down on the tree and do not receive as much sunlight as newly developed leaves higher up. Some of the best-known members of the conifer family are pines, spruces, firs, and hemlocks. The cones of the conifers are its flowers.

I SHOULD NEVER HAVE BOUGHT

The thing that I should never have bought was my massive blow up chair. When you first get it, it takes ages to blow up about 40 minutes to be exact and if you try to blow it up under you own steam it can get quite hard work.

Once the thing is finely blown up (and by the time it is you'll need to sit down) you will find that it is actually quite comfortable and it does take you weight very well but after a while it does start to deflate a little and you sink into it which makes it a slight challenge to get out again.

The chair itself is a very good design and when you sit in it your arms do fall upon the armrests and you sit in a good position to do many things. Also when its first blown up its head rest is it the right place and also supports you. But as time goes on and you start to sink in to the chair most of these things go down the drain and so you have to keep reajusting your self in it to keep doing what you doing. The chair itself is very big and it can barely fit on the floor of my room so it's a bit ungamely.

When I first bought the chair I got it for a gaming chair and in the beginning it suited the role very well until it deflates and you sink so far down you can't even see the T.V! It is also very prone to springing leaks and returning down to its size before you blew it up.

And that's why I shouldn't have bought it.