"Engineered" wood?

[Ray Schafer]

I was looking through the latest Crate and Barrel catalog for some ideas. I was specifically looking for what kinds of wook they use in their furniture (because, as I said in my latest post -- buying wood is still a thing that is difficult for me to figure out -- still being kind of a newbie and all). For many of their pieces they say that they use such-and-such solid wood and 'engineered' such-and-such.

I am guessing that when they say "solid mahogany and engineered mahogany" they mean mahogany face frames and mdf with mahogany veneer.

Do you have better ideas for what "engineered wood" is?

[Greg Crawford]

On flooring, engineered wood is like plywood with a veneer for the actual floor. Don't knnow if that holds true for furniture.

[Brian Effinger]

I believe that you are right. Engineered wood would be anything man-made, such as mdf or plywood.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Hi Ray,
I was curious as to the definition since you had brought it up so I went to the web and did a little digging. I take engineered wood to be a material made using wood as the starting material....except paper and paper products, I guess. That includes everything from plywood to OSB to flooring. There's even an Engineered Wood Association, although I didn't check to see just what they did.

[Ray Schafer]

OK, I looked it up on Wikipedia. I sounds like anything besides solid wood is 'engineered wood.'

[J. Z. Guest]

This reminds me of George Carlin's bit on "Euphemisms & Euphemistic language."

When they say "engineered", they mean "engineered to not cost much."

[Jim Becker]

A lot of furniture today uses both solid stock and what you (and C&B) refer to as "engineered" materials...typically veneer on some form of composite substrate. That may be MDF, particle board or veneer core ply, depending on the piece. While we, as woodworkers and craftsmen, don't prefer that sometimes, the fact that we accept the use of plywood in our own projects to save time (and sometimes, but not always) money, isn't all that much different from these retailers that are trying to offer a product that their customers want to buy at a price and margin that is acceptable from a business perspective. The stuff from C&B, PB and a few others is actually a lot better quality than many of the things I've seen in many local and chain furniture stores, too.

Veneer over solid stock and veneer plywood has been used has been in use in the furniture industry for a long, long time. It's only natural that more recently created "engineered" products have also become part of the same industry. The business climate demands it, both on the manufacturing cost side and on the consumer buying side.

[Pat Germain]

So what's the difference between MDF and particle board?

[Jason Beam]

So what's the difference between MDF and particle board?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=Build/OSBMDFPart.html

[Ray Schafer]

MDF is a very smooth accurately sized 'engineered' wood made of very fine particles (like sawdust) mixed with adhesives that allow it to be formed into "wood." Particle board is similar, but the particles are large pieces.

[Pat Germain]

^^ Thanks for the clarification. I thought I knew the difference, but after reading this thread, I wasn't quite sure.

[Matt Ocel]

Jeremy - I have to respectfully disagree with you. As a framing carpenter, engineered lumber is far more expensive than dimensional lumber.(and performs much better also)