I will shortly be commissioning a set of doors that open out from my kitchen into the garden. Are there any particular pros and cons for the varioius hardwoods that are available? Any factors I should be aware of in selecting the wood?
Many thanks
Chris
I looked at the "durability" of the wood I choose. Hardwood / Softwood is the difference between weather the leaves fall off the tree, not how hard/soft the wood actually is.
I chose Douglas Fir, for various reasons cost local supply - managed woodland I like the look of it The people who are making my windows like working with it
Rick
There is no point in having hardwood if you intend to paint it. What you need is to ensure long straight grain and no knots. But you should expect that without asking, from a reputable workshop.
You might insist on a dip in preservative or at the very least a brushed on coating of something like Cuprinol when it is assembled and the glue has dried. (I presume they still make poisons like that?)
If you insist on hardwood make sure it has the seal of approval from sustained forest management authorities.
Most of the illegal logging comes from Indonesia and Brazil these days, so just stay clear of mahogany type woods.
If you want Oak go the France or Spain for it. I bet you get better quality or cheaper than if you buy British.
Look for the FSC logo. Then you can be sure the wood wasn't previously home to an orang-utan, or a spotted owl, or something rare and interesting.
Andy
If the doors face south or west, I'd consider upvc or aluminium. The basic design of french windows makes them very vulnerable to the weather.
Douglas fir is a moderately durable softwood and so is larch. Curiously larch is also deciduous -the needles drop off in winter. Either of these would be suitable and do not need painting with poison. Forget all the tropical hardwoods if you care about the planet. Similarly upvc and alluminium. Oak is, of course, far and away the best. It is durable, will not need preservative treatments, can be left bare to age gracefully to a silvery grey or can be coated with linseed oil for a warmer colour. Or you can paint it but use a real linseed oil paint. It is a little more expensive to buy and harder to work so expect to pay more for quality but it will last for ever. And it is beautiful. I don't agree that you have to buy oak from France or Spain. Rumour has it they keep the best for wine barrels :-) There are large supplies of good oak from Poland and Hungary but there is also plenty of excellent home grown oak. I only use British oak for my windows and doors
Keruing ( Dipterocarpus Costatus Gaertn.F.) or Teak. Can be linseed oiled, or left as they are naturally oily. We used to use keruing for slats on wooden boxes that were intermittently submerged as part of a boating pontoon.
Biff, as a matter of interest, what do you use for hinges and fitments? Brass?
Yup - all to do with whether it is a deciduous tree or not as many people are surprised to hear that Balsa wood is actually a hardwood!
Yes, I mostly use brass. You can get a chemical reaction between ferrous metals and the chemicals in oak particularly in places where it can get wet. A good quality stainless steel would be fine. For antique-looking iron hinges and latches use real whiteheat malleable iron.
OK. I've always used brass or stainless for internal projects. How do you avoid problems with using malleable iron? Do you use stainless screws and then accept that you will get some staining from the iron?
The glazing bars of the typical french door last about as long as hardwood beading i.e. no time at all. Save the gay whale.
We once did some trial work on promoting sweet chestnut for window frames, it's better than oak in many ways, more stable but splits very easily so the joints need considering. It is also readily available in long thin sections.
We did our work using cleft sections to avoid short grain and machined these clefts. Lack of interest meant we never got further than machining a few sections and seeing how they faired over time, which was good. I think it is still a good project to pursue but of course we have largely lost our hardwood saw milling resource over the last
30 years as they couldn't compete with imports or timber substitutes.AJH
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