How structured wood is industrially produced

We like old wood because over time it acquires a special patina and a raised structure that brings out its design and beauty even more. If you go to the countryside and look at old plank fences, old wooden houses or barns, you will see besides the grey colour of the natural colour of the wood oxidising over time, this 3D structure, with the late wood in relief because the early wood has been "eaten" by the weather. This look is so popular that it began to be reproduced industrially by sandblasting or sanding. The generic term for such wood is structured wood.

I will briefly tell you about late and early wood, a subject I developed in other article. Trees add woody material annually, which in cross-section looks like a ring. Hence the name annual ring. The woody material is not added uniformly throughout the growing season of the year. In the first period, spring-summer, growth is rapid and the material deposited is looser and not very hard. In autumn, when sunlight and water supply decrease, growth is much slower and the material is dense and hard. When structuring is done, some of the softer wood is removed.

For DIY work, one-offs or very small series, structuring can be done manually with wire brushes or with abrasive brushes mounted on a drill. There are also manual machines specially made for this operation which can be done on both softwood and hardwood. It goes much easier on softwoods, as early wood is softer and easier to remove. To avoid scratching the wood it is best not to use very thin wire wheels or brushes. After structuring, white sanding is done to remove raised grain and even out the appearance.

As you can imagine, handmade structuring is quite laborious and it is hard to think of an industrial production of parquet, for example, done this way. That's why sandblasting or structuring with sanding machines is used to obtain industrially structured wood. About sandblast I've already spoken, so I won't go into it again. I will only say that the method involves removing early wood by spraying with sand or other such abrasive materials.

The sanding machines used for structuring are very similar to the sanding machines used for finishing lines. Early wood is removed with rotating brushes. Brushes are made of various materials (wire, plastic, sandpaper)

and are successively placed on the line so that at the end the wood is structured and sanded.

Because the wood obtained has an old, rustic look, the machines are also called rusticating machines.

Unlike sandblasting, where the only effect achieved is to highlight the natural pattern of the wood, rusticating machines can achieve other effects. For example, they can make perpendicular scratches on the grain, which mimic the marks from primary cuts in girders, circular saws, or other types of gouges or holes specific to tile, broom or chisel work.

The advantage of using machines is that the effect is reproduced exactly, which is very useful when talking about mass-produced products. It is very important that the flooring or cladding planks reproduce a certain template, which can always be reproduced in the same way, regardless of the batch or where it was produced.

In conclusion, when making unitized or small series, structuring can be done manually because it is not important to repeat the same effect in the next work. On the contrary, originality is an added advantage. If, however, it is a question of mass production, then it is imperative that the result can be reproduced at any time, and in this case machines are the best choice.