Traditional Construction Technique

Raw wood materials are kiln dried to maximum moisture of 10–12% before they are passed

through the next procedure of woodworking. Each member of furniture is jointed and assembled

into unique piece of furniture by the Traditional Construction Technique dovetail, mortise and

tenoned, and/or tongue and groove with floating panel.

There are no metal nails, screws, glue where it may be avoided, unless absolutely necessary.

Each piece is carved into an intricate design of embossed or cut-through carving by hand of

highly skilled craftsmen.  Tree-sap and plaster are used to smooth wooden surface and then

tree-sap polishes are applied at least 6-7 times.  No coloring matter was added to the polishing

process.  Our furniture with tree sap finish will stay shiny without any other special treatment.

All the furniture is professionally wrapped and packed for container shipments at site.

Fundamental Joinery

It is joining the wood components at right angles to one another. Joints do more than make

use of small pieces of wood. They make frames, increase length and make large surfaces of

solid wood. The joints had proven to be extremely strong. There are no metal nails, screws

or glue where it may be avoided, unless absolutely necessary.

Mortise and Tenon

The strongest method for joining wood at right angles is the mortise and tenon. This ancient

joint is found in Egyptian furniture thousands of years ago. The joint is like a squarish peg

(the tenon) fitted precisely to a squarish hole (the mortise). There are hundreds of variations on

the mortise and tenon joint, each suited to particular purpose or craft tradition. The most

common tenon is rectangular in cross-section, as is the mortise. This gives great

resistance to twisting forces.

The tighter the fit, and the longer and taller the tenon, the stronger the joint will be.  The

so-called through-tenon, with the tenon completely penetrating the mortise-bearing member,

is the strongest of all.   The most common means to secure the tenon is a peg, which fits into

a hole near the opening of the mortise.  In some cases, such as portable furniture, lashing is

also used in combination.  Wedges which spread the tenon in the mortise are sometimes seen.

This also prevents the tenon from being pulled out of the mortise.

Probably the next development in joinery was the dovetail joint, which is often seen in box or

drawer construction.  The joint is comprised of a wedge-sheped tenon (the "tail") on one

component which overlaps a corresponding wedge-shaped slot in a second component.  The

portion of wood surrounding these slots is called the "pin."  Except in the case of decorative

joinery, all the pins are on one board, all the tails on another.  The term "dovetail joint" can refer

to one tail, or many in a row, such as on a drawer side.  As in the case of morties-and-tenon,

the strongest dovetail joint is made when the pins and tails go all the way through the joint.

The Panel: Edge Joints

The edge joint, or those which join the thin, long edge of boards together to make a panel, is

another ancient technique.  These joints increase the width of the wood surface, such as for

a table top.  Usually, the deges are simply glued together, but sometimes a more elaborate

joint is used.  Simple edge glueing requires that absolutely straight and square surfaces be

prepared.  Glues prepared from the skin of animals were the most common, and are still used

today.  More elaborate joinery, such as tongue-and-groove ( a modified mortise-and-tenon), are

used only for alignment of the mating surfaces.  Veneering can also be thought of as a

specialized form of edge glueing.

Increasing Length: Splining

Joints which increase length are called spline joints.  An example of these fundamental joints

can be found in 18th century case furniture construction, such as a "high boy."  Such a

cabinet might have a box made of a set of planks joined by dovetails at the corners.  A

morties-and-tenon frame with legs would lift it off the floor.  Doors of frame and panel

construction would enclose the case.  These are frames joined by mortise-and-tenon, with

panels (perhaps two or more edge glued boards) fitted into a groove of the inside edge of the

frame.   There might be drawers; typically, these would also be of dovetail construction.

You will be able to find out more on how our furniture are made using the Traditional

Construction Technique if you refer to our range of classical Furniture.