What is this engineered wood called?

[thomashenry]

Was in a bar in Italy recently, and all the tables and shelves were made with this laminated wood product (see pictures). Does anyone know what this is called?

 

[Setch]

Looks like block board

 

[AndyT]

Agreed. Three layers of blockboard.
It's much less common than it used to be, as MDF has almost replaced it, but it is still available.

 

[Trevanion]

I haven't seen any blockboard for a long time, not even sure if it's still made!

 

[AndyT]

I haven't seen any blockboard for a long time, not even sure if it's still made!

According to Avon Plywood it is, but you might need to order more than a shelf's worth:

avonplywood.co.uk/Client Area/ASP/Blockboard.aspx

 

[Hornbeam]

Blockboard is available in stock from Potters in Cheshire

 

[Trevanion]

Better question: Why is it still being made?

 

[MikeG.]

Better question: Why is it still being made?

Maybe so they don't have to edge-seal cheap bits of furniture? Dunno.

 

[custard]

Laminboard.

Light, stable, and takes fastenings well. There's a German version that's popular with some makers as a veneering substrate.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

My 2d's worth:

The only thing I've seen like that is what I would call blockboard (and I think Laminboard seems to be very similar). There is a difference though - those Italian boards use sawn pine boards as the "bread" in the "sandwich", whereas most blockboard uses one or more plys of veneer (as in plywood) as the outer slices of "bread".

It's possible that the Italian stuff was made specially, or is a local product - probably with a name that ends in "i".

Cheers, W2S

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blockboard
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laminboard
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/battenboard

PS I'd say it's more like this stuff - cross-laminated spruce: https://www.universalply.com/product/novaspruce-clt/

PPS Googling "Cross Laminated Timber" is worthwhile....

 

[thomashenry]

Better question: Why is it still being made?

Dunno, but I thought it looked really nice in this bar. They’d made a feature of it.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Better question: Why is it still being made?

Dunno, but I thought it looked really nice in this bar. They’d made a feature of it.

Yebbutt its CLT not blockboard anyway

 

[Phil Pascoe]

From googling CLT it's not CLT - all the internal grain runs the same way. From what I remember (from decades ago) of using blockboard/battenboard and laminboard they were similar, except that the strips in laminboard were very much smaller so the end product was far more stable (and expensive).

 

[Woody2Shoes]

From googling CLT it's not CLT - all the internal grain runs the same way. From what I remember (from decades ago) of using blockboard/battenboard and laminboard they were similar, except that the strips in laminboard were very much smaller so the end product was far more stable (and expensive).

If you look at the second Italian picture it looks exactly the same stuff as CLT e.g.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-lam ... e_2009.jpg
https://www.specifiedby.com/metsae-wood ... ted-timber

The only difference, ignoring branding, between Laminboard, blockboard and battenboard is the quality (and yes, size) - of the staves (meat in the sandwich) and of the outer veneers (bread in the sandwich). e.g. https://design-technology.org/Blockboard.htm

The primary distinction between all those flavours of blockboards and CLT (and the Italian stuff in the OP) is that the "bread" in the sandwich is not veneer, it's staves/boards of solid wood.

Cheers, W2S

 

[Beau]

The Italians make or used to make some great laminated panels. When building our house I was eyeing up a hardwood panel of 44mm thickness for stair treads. Think Lathams had it in their catalogue at the time. Sadly by the time I was ready to build the stairs the product was no longer available in the UK.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The example of CLT I looked at was more than three ply, that's why I came to my conclusion.

 

[Brtone]

Blockboard, we used it when the item was expected to stay flat, made some school blackboards from it, many years ago

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Blockboard, we used it when the item was expected to stay flat, made some school blackboards from it, many years ago

Er... :roll:

 

[Inspector]

Until sometime in the 70's we could get Lumber Core Plywood for furniture and cabinetry. Mostly made overseas of something like Philippine Mahogany. I recently got 3 sheets of 3/4" from the shop of an old cabinet maker among other things. The face veneer is Sen I think. It was made on the same principals as your wood you're posting about.

Pete

End grain.

Edge grain.

Veneer face.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

The OP's stuff does not have veneer as the 'bread' in the 'sandwich' - or any other component part. Therefore it's not blockboard or the other similar products - which all include a veneer component. Cheers, W2S (hammer)