Jabon wood for furniture

Kayu jabon, jati kebon (Anthocephalus cadamba) is starting to be favored to be cultivated by wood plantation companies or residence peoples. It can be good alternative to supply the woodworking industry demand for the cheap wood but with acceptable quality. Jabon tree has a straight trunk and grow quite fast if planted in the suitable areas. It can live in the tropical area with the level 0 to 1000 m above the sea. The jabon wood is considered soft and inexpensive to be used for the interior parts in the woodworking industry. Now it is still less popular than the sengon wood, but jabon wood has great potential to fulfill the wood for woodworking industry. In the proper climate the jabon trees can grow quite fast, easy to be planted, and have a straight trunk. He has straight branches that are easy to be cut to give the cleaner and straight stem with less knot. This wood is also relatively easy to be dried; it has small volume shrinkage make it can be dried fast. For interior used, the jabon wood can be drying within a few days.
Jabon wood is light and soft with a smooth pores and grain and pores texture. It is good choice for plywood, or barecore. Generally the wood has straight and long stem, which is easy to be sliced to make veneer or plywood.
Some people also use this wood to make furniture with quite good result. This wood is hard and strong enough to make furniture. It can be shaped, machined, engraved and carved to produce nice and interesting wood furniture product. This wood has a yellowish white base color; with the proper finishing it could produce furniture with an attractive appearance.

Jabon wood properties:

 
Volume shrinkage from wet to dry (m.c. 12%) : 3% for tangential,  6.9% for radial
Specific gravity                                              :  0.29 to 0.56
Modulus of elasticity                                      :  42.9 to 68.0 kg/cm2
Hardness (Janka test )                                   :  276-409 kg/cm (edges), 239-268 (side)

 

                                                   jabon wood furniture
                                                     picture is from : jabon


Finishing for jabon wood. 

Jabon timber has a great potential to be used as raw materials for furniture. This wood has a yellow base color so it can be finished in a any wood color without much difficulty. With proper application of finishing material, it can produce wide range of transparent wood colors without any problem. It also still have grain which is special. Although its grain may be not as beautiful as hard wood such as teak or mahogany, but it still can be enhanced in the finishing process. It has small and shallow grain and pores texture, make it quite easy to be finished in the close pores finish. The pores and grain texture can be easy to be covered with the sealer application without the hard process of filler application.
The solid-color finishing is better option since it would be easier to do. His shallow pores and grain is an advantage because it will be easily to be covered with paint or base coat. The solid color in many color, either antique or clean looked can be generated to make the attractive looked.

The jabon wood should be considered as softwood. It has risk for blotchy color if it is not well prepared.  A good sanding is very important to get good finishing result. A glue sizing can be done to help the sanding process and minimize the color blotchy problem. The wood is also susceptive for the insects attacked; The proper wood treatment is recommended to minimize the insect attacked problem later on.