Technology Flashcards
What are examples of hardwoods?
Mahogany Beech Ash Walnut Teak Birch Elm Oak
What are hardwoods?
Slow growing trees
Grow mainly in warmer climates
Hard to work
Used to make expensive furniture
What is mahogany?
Expensive, imported, decorative hard wood
Used in furniture, doors, window frames, staircases
Strong, medium weight timber
Difficult to work
Applied to base material
What is beech?
A close grained hardwood
Used in situations where the product is exposed to a lot of wear and tear
Non toxic, no odour or taste
Not prone to splitting
Used in children’s toys, kitchen utensils, e.g. breadboards, rolling pins and wooden spoons, furniture and tenon saw handles
What is ash?
Colours vary from creamy white to light brown
Long grained timber that is tough and flexible
Good resistance to shock
Used in sports equipment, e.g. hockey sticks and cricket stumps, hammer shafts, garden tool handles
What is oak?
Freshly planed oak has a beige-brown colour which changes to a rich, deep brown with time
Very hard, strong and durable timber
Quite heavy
Used in kitchen units, furniture and staircases
What are softwoods?
Fast growing trees Have needles instead of leaves Usually evergreen Mainly grow in colder regions Used to make inexpensive furniture, structures and frames
What are some examples of softwoods?
Pitch pine Redwood Parana pine Douglas fir Scots pine Hoop pine Sitka spruce
What is pine?
Most pines are inexpensive, locally grown softwoods from managed forests
Pale and have very little grain markings
Used when appearance is not important
Used for making moulds for vacuum forming
What is parana pine?
Has a fine, even texture and is a pale, creamy brown colour
Available in long, wide boards often without knots
Grows mainly in South America
Fairly heavy, tough timber which is very prone to twisting
Commonly used for structures which are securely jointed
Used in staircases, windowsills, step ladders
What is spruce?
Commonly known as whitewood
Similar colour to pine but not as dark
Grows in Canada and the British isles
Contains lots of very hard, dead knots which often fall out
Tough material and is fairly hard and durable
Not suitable for outdoor use
Used in rafters, newspapers, floor joists, roof joists, coal pit props
What is cedar?
Comes from North America
Good for outdoor use
Has a natural chemical that protects the timber from decay
Can be sawed, planed or carved
Used for lining clothing chests and closets, boats, pencils, telephone poles
What is a man-made board?
Wood that has been cut and glued to form a sheet or board
What are the advantages to Manufactured boards?
Size
Can be made up to 1500mm wide
Stronger than solid timber because of the arrangement of grain
What are the disadvantages of Manufactured boards?
Prolonged exposure to moisture can often cause them to become weak
They are difficult to join using wood joints and often require special fixings
The boards tend to split at the edges when a nail or screw goes in
