Panels & Furniture Asia November/December 2021

WOOD CLINIC
Corrosion resistance: It is water intolerant
and perishable, and it is prone to damage
caused by ambrosia borers, termites and
longhorn beetles. The wood can be treated
with chromated copper arsenate (CCA)
preservatives to improve the resistance to
decay and insect pests.
Processing properties: It is easy to carry
out fine processing and dye coating, with
sound adhesion performance. However, the
high content of wood latex may lead to poor
adhesion. If nailed, it will not break easily,
but the nail strength will be weak.
Uses: It can be used to produce wooden
boxes, matchsticks, templates, blackboards,
toys, heels of shoes, plywood, pencils, photo
frames and many more.
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II. Pulai wood, also known as the split leaf
duck foot tree, has a scientific name of
Alstonia angustiloba.
What is often called Pulai in the market
is a light hardwood and belongs to the
Apocynaceae family. There are five main
species, with their scientific names being A.
angustiloba Miq., A. macrophylla Wallich, A.
pneumatophora Backer, A. spatulata Blume
and A. scholaris (L.) R.Br.
Here are brief descriptions on identifying
Pulai wood:
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Origin: It is produced in the tropical or
subtropical areas of South East Asia. Pulai
is suitable for growing in various soils and
often grows in swamps. It is also planted
along the roads of Singapore and Thailand.
Morphological characteristics: As evergreen
trees, they are 25m high and have a DBH of
up to 0.8m. Trunks commonly seen in round
log farms are not large, with an average
diameter of 60cm. There are four to eight
whorled leaves, and each leaf is about
6-14cm long and 2.5-6.5cm wide. The leaves
are shiny and oblanceolate (Figure 5). The
veins are thinner than that of Jelutong, and
the lateral veins on both sides of the leaves
are perpendicular to the midrib and slightly
misaligned (Figure 6). The bark is dark gray
with no longitudinal cracks and no white
latex overflow.
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Legend
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Jelutong leaves are shiny, oval and
leathery
Clear veins on the front and back of
Jelutong leaves
The bark is black-brown, with white latex
overflowing from the rubber tube hole
Figure 4
Figure 5
When used as three-ply plywood panel, it takes
time to fill up the rubber tube holes with mud
Pulai leaves. They have yellow
bloom from June to August and pods grow.
The seeds that split apart have thin wings
and are spread by wind
Panels & Furniture Asia | November / December 2021 65