Makers of Bespoke Wooden Gates
In soft & Hardwoods
Gates will be treated with micro emulsion industrial wood preservative for FREE.
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Supplying most of our hardwoods
Hardwoods
Here at Pine martin gates we are now offering a wide range of hardwoods. This means that there’s sure to be a hardwood that is not only right for the project, but right for the budget too! But we will endeavour to provide any timber needed for a particular project.
All Hardwoods are of the very finest air or kiln dried joinery FAS grades, with Oak in in Prime Grade A and grade 2. (see below) And all suppliers are FSC & PEFC certificated.
Below are a list of the main hardwoods offered with some information about each type. Please feel free to contact us it you need any more information or advice about the timbers lists.
TEAK
Latin Name: Tectona grandis
Distribution:
Indigenous to Burma and India, and S E Asia, and introduced into East and West Africa and the Caribbean.
Uses:
Extensively used for shop and boat building for decking, rails, hatches, etc. Furniture and cabinetmaking, interior and exterior joinery, flooring, exterior structural work and garden furniture. Also for acid resistant purposes such as chemical vats, fume ducts and laboratory benches. All grades of plywood, and sliced for decorative and face veneers.
General Description:
The true teak of Burma is a uniform golden-brown colour without markings, but most other teak is rich brown with darker chocolate-brown markings. Indian teak is wavy grained and mottled, but generally straight to wavy grained, coarse textured, uneven, oily to the touch, and sometimes with a white glistening deposit. Weight varies from 610-690 kg/m3
Mechanical Properties:
This hard, medium density wood has medium bending strength, high crushing strength combined with low stiffness and resistance to shock loads. It is fissile and brittle with great dimensional stability; it is fire and acid resistant. Teak can be steam bent to a moderate radius of curvature.
Durability:
Very durable
IROKO
Latin Name: Chlorophora excelsa
Distribution: West and East Africa.
Uses:
Ship and boat building, interior and exterior joinery; laboratory benches, furniture making and carving. It is a structural timber suitable for piling and marine work, and for domestic flooring. Also for plywood manufacture and sliced for wall panelling, flush doors and decorative veneering.
General Description:
A durable hardwood that is often used as an alternative to Teak.
Iroko is golden-orange to brown, lighter vessel lines are conspicuous on flat saw surfaces. The material may contain large, hard deposits of calcium carbonate in cavities, and the timber around them may be darker in colour. The grain is interlocked and sometimes irregular and the texture rather coarse, but even. The weight is 640 kg/m3
Mechanical Properties:
Iroko's medium density timber has a moderate steam bending classification, with medium bending and crushing strength, very low stiffness and resistance to shock loads.
Durability:
The sapwood is liable to attack by powder post beetle, but is highly resistant to termites in Africa. The heartwood is very durable, and is extremely resistant to preservative treatment. The sapwood is permeable.
UTILE
Latin Name: Entandrophragma utile,
Distribution: West and East Africa.
Uses:
Furniture and cabinetmaking, counter tops, high-class exterior and interior joinery, flooring, boat building and planking, musical instruments, sports good, and general construction work. Selected material used for plywood manufacture and sliced for decorative veneers.
General Description:
Traditionally one of the better Class 1 hardwoods. A durable, hardwood of uniform red colour. Machines better than other African redwoods. Many have switched to Utile from Brazilian Mahogany
The heartwood matures from a pink-brown when fresh cut to deep red-brown. The grain is interlocked to rather irregular, producing a wide irregular striped figure on quartered surfaces. Weight varies from 550-750 kg/m3 (34-47 lb/ft3), but averages 660 kg/m3 Texture, uniformly moderate.
Mechanical Properties:
This heavy density wood has only medium bending strength, and a high crushing strength with low stiffness and resistance to shock loads. It has a very poor steam bending classification as it buckles severely.
Durability:
The wood is durable; the sapwood liable to attack by powder post beetle, and the heartwood is moderately resistant to termites in West Africa. It is extremely resistant to preservative treatment and resistant to decay.
European OAK
Latin Name: Quercus robur
Distribution:
UK and Europe.
Uses:
For furniture and cabinetmaking, Slavonian, Volhynian and Spessart (German) oaks are preferred. English oak is best for boat building, dock and harbour work, sea defences, railway wagons, ladder rungs, sills, thresholds, and for all purposes of exposure in contact with the ground. High-class joinery, coffins, ecclesiastical work such as pews, rood screens pulpits, and carving. Flooring , vehicle body bearers and floors in trucks. Oak is rotary cut for plywood manufacture and sliced for very attractive “silver grain” and “raindrop” figured oak veneers for panels and cabinets.
General Description:
Wood structure and quality are heavily influenced by growth conditions. Central European Oak trees grow slowly, relatively evenly and produce wood of uniform colour and straight grain
European Oak's heartwood is light tan to biscuit coloured, usually straight grained, but irregular or cross-grained material can occur depending on growth conditions. Characteristic silver grain figure on quartered surfaces due to broad rays. British and Baltic oaks are tough and hard, weighing 720 kg/m3 (45 lb/ft3), but the Volhynian oak of south east Poland, and even milder oak from Yugoslavia known as Slavonian oak weights 670 kg/m3 (42 lb/ft3); specific gravity from .67 to .72 according to type.
Durability:
The heartwood is durable, extremely resistant to preservative treatment, but the sapwood is permeable. The acidic nature of oak will affect metals in indirect contact and cause corrosion. Non-ferrous or galvanised metals should be used.
IDIGBO
Latin Name: Terminalia ivorensis
Distribution: West Africa
Uses:
Used in furniture and high-class joinery for interior and exterior work, and general carpentry and joinery and construction work. Rotary cut material is used for plywood manufacture and sliced for decorative veneers for panelling. It should not be used in damp conditions due to natural staining properties if in contact with iron compounds.
General Description:
Idigbo's heartwood is pale yellow-brown, showing a zonal figure originating in the growth rings – like plain oak – and sometimes with a light pinkish cast. The grain is straight to slightly irregular or interlocked. The texture is medium to fairly coarse and uneven. The weight is variable owing to the prevalence of light-weight brittleheart in the inner core-wood; also liable to thunder shakes. Weight from 480-620 kg/m3
Mechanical Properties:
Very poor steam bending classification, medium crushing strength, low bending strength and very low stiffness and resistance to shock loads.
Durability:
Idigbo's sapwood is liable to attack by powder post beetle. Moderately resistant to termites. The heartwood is durable and extremely resistant to preservative treatment; the sapwood is moderately resistant.
SAPELE
Latin Name: Entandrophragma cylindricum
Distribution: West and East Africa
Uses:
Quality furniture and cabinetmaking, joinery, shop fitting, office furniture, solid doors, boat building, musical instruments, sports goods, counter tops and flooring. Extensively used as a constructional veneer for plywood and selected logs are sliced for panelling and decorative face veneers for cabinets and marquetry, etc.
General Description:
One of the more popular of the redwood Mahogany type timbers. A good number of our customers are now using Sapele as an alternative to other hardwoods - mainly because of its present price advantage
The heartwood has a medium to dark reddish-brown colour, characterised by a well-defined ribbon striped figure on quartered surfaces. Sometimes, when wavy grain is present, a very attractive fiddleback figure, roe figure or occasionally, beautiful mottled figure is obtained. The grain is interlocked or wavy and the texture fairly fine. Has a cedar-like scent when freshly cut. The timber is liable to ring or cup shakes. Weight varies between 560-690 kg/m3
Durability:
Moderately durable. The sapwood is liable to attack by powder post beetle and moderately resistant to termites in Africa. The heartwood is resistant to preservative treatment and the sapwood moderately resistant.
Grading hardwoods & Drying
FAS Grades
FAS derives from an earlier grade known as "First and Seconds". It is the best and most expensive grade. Boards 6" and wider, 8' and longer. Yields 83-1/3 percent of clear face cuttings with minimum sizes of 4" x 5', or 3" x 7'. Suitable for fine furniture, interior joinery, solid wood moldings, and other applications where clear, wide boards are needed.
Oak Grades
Grade A: 2/3 of the board is clean, straight and with a regular heart. 1 knot with a maximum diameter of 30mm per 2 linear metres is acceptable.
Grade 1: 1 knot with a maximum diameter of 40mm per 2 linear metres is acceptable, larger knots area acceptable providing they isolated to 25% of the board and lead to a volume reduction.
Grade 2: Sloping, twisted or curly grain is permitted. 1 knot with a maximum diameter of 80mm per 2 linear metres is acceptable, larger knots are acceptable providing they are isolated to 25% of the board and lead to a volume reduction.
Air Dried Oak
The air drying process starts with the careful stacking of fresh sawn timber into layers separated by uniform sticks which allows the air to circulate around the timber. This draws out the naturally occurring water from the sap and eventually reduces the moisture content of the wood. However, the process of milling a tree will expose tensions and stresses within the boards, which if used immediately would cause a product to warp, twist and split. The process of air drying means the wood is exposed to fluctuations in temperature and ambient moisture levels of the changing seasons. The timber responds by expanding and contracting and thereby releasing its’ tensions and stresses over time, resulting in timber which can be used in joinery or cabinet work.
Typically 100mm thick timber is dried for 4-5 years. 100mm, 120mm and 150mm joinery oak have been seasoning for between 4 and 7 years, and would be at around 18% moisture content. This is just right for gates, as green oak will shrink and may then warp, and kiln dried will be to dry, causing the frames and more importantly the infill board to swell up and push out of the frames if left untreated from the weather.
For quality, thick joinery oak there’s no substitute for time!
As timber dries moisture leaves the wood at different rates. Timber will naturally shrink, twist and crack during this process causing tension within the fibre. This tension eases with time as the wood expands and contracts with the temperature variations throughout the season; hence why air drying takes typically 2 - 5 years.