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Best Wood for Second Hand Furniture
Posted by GuestPoster in -Home and Furnishings
If you’re on the hunt for wooden second hand furniture, you’ll want to make sure that the pieces you buy are of good quality and are really going to last. Before you buy, it’s worth making sure you know what type of wood the furniture you’re looking at is made from so that you can judge it’s durability and value.
Hardwood vs softwood
Hardwoods – The term hardwood can be somewhat misleading. It actually refers to wood from broad-leaved trees that drop their leaves in winter – not all types of hardwood are actually particularly strong, for instance lightweight balsa wood is actually a type of hardwood! That said, the hardest of them are incredibly strong and durable, far more so than any softwoods, making them the wisest choice for your second hand furniture.
Popular hardwoods used in furniture making include mahogany, walnut, maple, oak, ash and cherry. These wood varieties have different properties – some have fine grains and even finishes, some have more distinctive open grains but all of them are wonderfully durable. Whether you’re looking for a second hand dining table or white bedroom furniture, choosing solid hardwood for your furniture means you’ll be buying something of real quality that will last an incredibly long time. Solid hardwood furniture will be more expensive, but buying second hand means that with some careful shopping you could pick up a real bargain that will last forever.
Softwoods
These come from conifer trees that have needle-like leaves, including pine, and are usually far less durable than most hardwoods. Softoods like pine are widely used in modern furniture construction as a versatile and affordable material and often have pronounced grains and knots that can be visually attractive.
If it’s inexpensive wooden second hand furniture that you’re after then softwoods like pine can seem like a great choice, but their strength can really deteriorate with time and they’re easily scratched and marked, leaving them looking tired fairly quickly. This means that you may well end up having to replace your bargain furniture in next to no time, making this something of a false economy.
Veneers and mixed wood construction
When you’re shopping for second hand furniture, make sure you check any wooden pieces over carefully – more expensive hardwoods are often used as veneers over cheaper wood or MDF constructions, so make sure you spot whether you’re actually looking at solid hardwood furniture before you part with your money.
Similarly, you’ll find some pieces of furniture that use durable hardwoods for the most visible areas but cheaper wood for the less obvious areas like table legs. This can be hard to spot if the wood has been given an all-over finish, so check over the whole of the piece carefully to make sure you pay a fair price for your second hand furniture.
When it comes to buying wooden second hand furniture, make sure you know the type of wood you’re looking at to make sure you don’t pay over the odds. Pine furniture can be incredibly cheap and, if you like its light and knotty appearance, it can be a good buy if its still in good condition, but for something of real quality that you can be sure will last forever, stick with hardwoods whenever you can afford to.
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