Thread: Meranti

Meranti - a timber that I'd class lower than pine. I use meranti around the house if it is going to be painted. The younger stuff is very fibrous, stringy and soft. Sanding it can be an atrocious activity due to these three points. It is recognisable by it's light weight and light brown/pink colour.

The better-quality meranti is red / dark red. It is denser, heavier and much more pleasant to work with.

cheers
Wendy

Hi Christos, Meranti, Pacific Maple sounds better, just one of its other names. It has been used for years for door jambs, achitave, skirting, an old school favourite. It was the schools timber of choice when I was doing wood work at school. You can stain it up to look like 50 other timbers, its easy to work when it is firm but can get tear out etc if its one of the softer pieces. On its own its a nice timber but most would say a little bland. It's probably a overpriced for what it is too. Talk to Mal Ward or someone who can get you timber at a half to a third of the price of off the shelf prices and you get interesting timber to boot.

Pacific Maple seems to be a generic term for all sorts of similar types of timbers with the same characteristics.
Most often it is light, straight grained timber easily worked. It resists splitting and is excellent for fitting out windows, doors architraves etc.
It is also very good for making mouldings as it seems to take shaping planes quite nicely. End grain is usually very coarse and porous, but this is nearly always hidden with mitres.
I agree that it can be over priced.
Cheers
SG

What Wendy said. One saving grace is that the better quality one provides good carving practice (same reasons as for plane moulding, I assume, never tried that). Even so, for carvings you would want to keep, get better looking timber.

Hi Christos,
Seems like everybody agrees with me on Meranti, you'd really have to love it to want to buy it. Theres much better timber around, even to practice on. Even radiata.
Cheers Ken

Yeah you have given me some food for thought. Looks like I might have to stick with what I have and keep a look out for things that come up.

Years ago there was a timber called Pacific Maple and another species called Meranti
Now they have an umbrella coverage, it applies to Meranti, Oregon for an example.
I use Meranti but I choose my own timber like Wendy said choose the heavy, dark pieces.
The price are high for all timbers and as my mate says "it don't grow on trees"

les

Meranti is straight grained and easily worked, and that is why it was chosen for fitting out dwellings. The heavier and darker timber has more appeal for tasks other than fit-out.
It depends on what you want to use it for.
I have used selected heavier and darker types for the sides of gift boxes, and offset this plain timber with a figured lid of a different species. It is value for money in this instance.
If you are looking for timber that might just be painted, then there are cheaper alternatives. Although it does take paint well, and keeps it. Unlike radiata in some situations which can shed paint in exposed positions. Meranti was much preferred over radiata for it's workability and its paint keeping abilities, and was first choice in these areas of trim for that reason.
All timber these days is getting exxy, so selecting a timber type for the job at hand is now even more important.
Meranti is still a good timber for many uses - if a little expensive sometimes.
Cheers
SG

Christos,
If you can pick out the darker hartwood boards from the stack then it can be quite good. Avoid the light coloured fibery looking bits. It is easy to work and quite stable in humidity changes.
A few picks to show it is fit for more than skirting boards. It was finished with a light rub of stain then danish oil.
Regards
John

As John has shown, it is a versatile timber as long as you are a bit picky. I find the fibrous nature of the light stuff handy for scribing in skirting etc - it's forgiving in that respect.
The better quality stuff takes stain well, glues well and has a reasonable figure.
Cheers,
Jim

Good Morning Christo

Years ago, meranti was also sold as "mixed tropical reds" - it's a mixture of several related and unrelated rain forest timbers. As John has illustrated well, carefully chosen forest grown meranti can be a very attractive timber, easy to work and quite stable.

Plantation grown meranti is almost always very soft, bland, subject to tear out and quite frustrating to use. You can easily recognise the plantation crap as the growth rings are 10 to 25 mm apart. It makes radiata look good!


Cheers

Graeme

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

It makes radiata look good!

Originally Posted by Christos

I just want to know what people think of a timber called Meranti.

I have done the usual search the web so now I want to see what people think when they have used it, seen it, touch it or even eaten it.

Christos,you asked what people thought about Meranti ?,

Well for what it's worth I suffer from eczema and I built Dolls Cot's out of the stuff for my Grandaughters for Christmas,and then started another for my wife.

I couldn't figure out why my eczema flared up to a point where I almost scratched myself silly and had troubles with my eye's watering,so I looked Meranti up here on BadWoods and found out why.

Besides the other description of the stuff in colours,it listed the symptoms of what to expect if using it (Symptoms.......Dermatitis,irritation to the nose,throat and eye's).
Now as a timber goes it was good to work with,cutting,drilling and routering but the killer for me I'm afraid was sanding ( I used a 220 grade paper),it's a very fine dust almost like Talc and it got right into the pores of my skin and drove me mad,blocked my nose solid and spent more time dabbing my eye's dry so I could see properly.

Painted or Stained and Lacquered it looks beautiful,but I'll be giving the stuff a wide berth before I use it again,and just for the record I used the redish pink colour.