Solid wood vs rubber wood

A practical guide to solid wood vs rubber wood: what to check on site, what a photograph cannot establish, and what to write in your purchase specification.

Solid wood furniture orders fail on species more often than on any other single attribute. The substitution is usually legal, usually invisible after finishing, and always expensive to discover in your own country.

Why substitution happens

Species prices move. Ash rises, and a factory that quoted a fixed price six months earlier has two options: absorb the difference, or change the wood. Absorbing it means losing margin on a fixed-price order. Changing it means the buyer finds out later — or does not.

Most factories doing this are not dishonest. They are responding to a price.

How to identify common substitutions on site

Observation	What it tells you
End grain structure	The most reliable field test. Compare a cut or unfinished end against your sample. Pore structure, ray fleck and earlywood/latewood ratio differ.
Density	Two components of identical dimensions from different batches should feel and weigh the same. If not, the species is probably not.
Odour	Fast but subjective. Some species have a characteristic smell when freshly cut; others are nearly odourless.
Colour after finishing	The least reliable. Finishes are chosen to make different species look similar.

dining table and chair verification covers the check as we perform it, including the part we cannot do.

What on-site inspection cannot establish

Visual identification is indicative. It is not a species determination. Definitive identification requires core sampling and laboratory analysis, or a DNA method for some genera.

Where doubt remains after a good on-site comparison, the honest position is to say so and recommend core sampling — not to record a clean pass. outdoor furniture wood species checks covers outdoor furniture, where premium species claims are most often made.

What to put in your specification

State the species by name and attach a physical sample. A photograph of a finished sample is better than nothing and much worse than the piece itself, because finishes distort both colour and apparent grain.

Then state: "Wood species to be verified against the approved sample by end grain comparison. Where doubt remains, core sampling at the buyer's cost." That sentence gives the inspector a defined task and gives you a defined remedy.