Introduction to type of wood available

One question I get most often when people are looking for furniture is what kind of wood is this? So which type of wood is better?

Currently in the local market the type of wood that we tend to find most is in the following order:-

1) MDF (Medium Density Fibre board)

2) Chipboard (a.k.a particle board)

3) Rubber wood

4) Nyatoh wood (declining in numbers majority are not pure nyatoh)

5) Teak (very few real and good quality teak furniture around nowadays)

Basically what type of wood to get it all depends on individual requirement and the budget available. One thing never changes in this world is when u pay peanuts you get monkeys. The Chinese saying 一分钱一分货applies universally.

My next post will touch on the properties of the different type of wood.