Sungkai wood.

Sungkai wood (phenomena cancascen jack ) has been well known in the woodworking  industry since many years ago. It is quite available a lot in Indonesia.  The sungkai tree are available in big amount in Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan. The wood has very attractive appearance. It has a light base color of white to light yellow with beautiful grain. It has wood strong grain character, but with the small and shallow of pores and grain texture. Some people call this wood is as the Indonesian oak because his beauty grain.
This wood has medium strength and hardness and quite easy to processed in the machinery. It is can be cut, drilled, glued and sanded without any problem. The wood is not suitable to make the products that require maximum strength. It is also considered not strong enough to withstand the outdoor weather. The uses wood for outdoor uses  still can be done but with proper finish. With its beautiful grain, the sungkai wood is more suitable to make any wooden products that need the beauty looked such as: furniture, veneer, plywood, door, architectural design, etc.
 
The sungkai wood should be dried slowly. The too fast drying will risk to get cracked and hairline problem. The wood is also susceptible to the attacking insects. The chemical treatment with the insect repellent is recommended to increase the durability of the wood.

 sungkai wood has strong grain character

Finishing for sungkai wood.

Sungkai wood has a light color, white color at sap wood to the light yellow brown at the heartwood.  It can be in the finished with any finish color. With proper finishing material and process, the wide range of colors and finishing models can be generated. It has nice grain and base color then the transparent color finishing is the best choice to the sungkai wood. The natural clean looked or the antique transparent finish can be used to maximize the beauty of the wood.  
The wood has less, small and shallow pores. The close pores finish can be made with relatively easy process. The pores and grain can be filled with 1 time filler application. If we used the catalyzed coating, then we can get the close pores finish without filer application. The pinhole or bubble problem is rarely happened in the finishing.

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The solid color finish also can be easily generated for the sungkai wood, but it is not recommended. The solid color finish will block and kill the beauty of the wood grain.