What is The Common Hard Wood in Thailand

[Chao Lao Beach]

You see it everywhere in wood shops, un-dressed hard wood that is a rich red in color.

It is used to also make those little gazebo type of covered chairs you can put in the garden.

[bankruatsteve]

1. The common term is "mai dang" - or red wood. But, it could be almost any local wood which there seems to be many varieties. Even though a hard wood, it is usually susceptible to wood boring bugs and should be treated. It's probably not teak.

[Chao Lao Beach]

I thought teak was yellow-ish..

How does teak compare cost wise?

Is it worth it to make stuff out of teak?

What it the Thai word for teak? (pronunciation please)

Edited December 27, 2013 by Chao Lao Beach

[Rust Never Sleeps]

I thought teak was yellow-ish..

How does teak compare cost wise?

Is it worth it to make stuff out of teak?

What it the Thai word for teak? (pronunciation please)

teak adj.(yellowish-brown)sii-mai-sak

teak n.dton-sak

teak is a very expensive timber, a high quality timber but very hard to come by.

it must be cured for many years.

if i could afford it , i would not hesitate to use it. I gather the rich thai people in most circumstances can only resource recycled teak..

[Crossy]

You can get teak furniture made easily, and the prices are not silly (compare with oak furniture in the UK). Our teak king size bed was 16k (without mattress) from the local 'teak man' off whom we have bought all our teak furniture.

Any teak you get now will be farmed and only relatively small sizes are available, really big, house sized beams, must be recycled as any tree big enough would likely be old growth and illegal.

The hard wood our OP is seeing will likely be mai daeng - Burmese Ironwood, much of it is so dense it won't float, our floors and window / door frames are of this, it really is hard, even drilling a hole is an adventure.

[Chao Lao Beach]

One of the reasons I asked is that it is very difficult to saw through.

In Oz anyway, the common cheap timber is pine or other soft woods, where it seems to be hard woods here.

I never really see soft woods for sale here. Only MDF etc.

Has anyone come across easy to "work with" soft woods in Thailand? (I mean playing around in the guarge)

Edited December 30, 2013 by Chao Lao Beach

[Crossy]

The issue with the soft woods is that they make a nice snack for the local insect population, not worth making anything in pine, it'll be gone in a couple of months.

The local hard woods are reasonably priced and, assuming you have decent sharp power tools, not too hard to work.