Step 1 - Wood Procurement

Kinds of wood available -

Local wood - Mango wood, teak, pine wood

Imported wood - White ash, oak, walnut, unnamed african wood.

After careful consideration, the choice was between two woods - Malwa Teak and White Ash Wood

Benefits of Malwa Teak ( wood available in my state) -

• Less water content, more oil content - this makes the wood less prone to bending in different weather conditions, especially humid

• Much more durable and heavy than most wood types

• Weight - 25kg/ CFT claimed by wood workers

• Requires Seasoning - 8-10 days

• Can get 1 block of 10x10" for legs

• Lesser Carbon footprint since it's locally available.

• 3" thickness available Disadvantages -

• The major disadvantage with teak is that since its a local wood , there are government restrictions to ship it outside India and I might need proper authorisation and paperwork,

• The weight is more than most woods

• Personally, I don't love the grains so much because it can have strong knots and it restricts me to make the furniture in lighter wood tones.

Benefits of White Ash Wood -

• Better grains than teak

• Lighter than most wood 20kg/ CFT

• More versatile for different finishes and stains since its very light colour naturally.

• Available in 2-3 days and comes seasoned

• Can be further seasoned in KD machine at my cousin's place if needed

• 9-12 % moisture content

• would do better in cold weather

Disadvantages -

• Available thickness is only 2", for 3" will have to order from Gandhidham which will take a week's time to come, and it's risky

• If only 2" is available then the legs will be made by joining 5 pieces which means the grains won't match

• More carbon footprint , since its already imported from Canada / North America

Wood Factories - Samples Collected -