Is rubber wood really much worse than oak?

At present, there are a large number of rubber wood furniture on the market.

From the perspective of price, rubber wood furniture is completely different from oak furniture. So, is rubber wood really that much worse than oak?

Historically, rubberwood is sawn timber produced from rubber trees that have lost their original rubber production. In the late 1970s, the industry developed pesticides, equipment, and technologies to protect rubberwood from insect and fungal damage, leading to its widespread commercialization in Malaysia. The treated and dried wood, with its elegant color, beautiful texture, fine structure, and excellent workability, attracted merchants like Japan, which prioritized the decorative effects of wood structures, and introduced it in large quantities for Japanese furniture manufacturing and residential decoration.

The rubber wood used by some domestic furniture companies is mostly imported from abroad and undergoes strict customs inspection and quarantine, ensuring safety, hygiene, and quality. Consumers can rest assured when purchasing high-quality rubber wood furniture produced by these companies. The claim that rubber wood furniture can easily cause skin allergies and is unsuitable for those with skin allergies is biased.

In terms of physical properties, there is not much difference between rubber wood and oak.

Rubberwood's physical and mechanical properties are comparable to those of renowned precious woods such as nanmu, camphor, yellow pine, linden, eucalyptus, and ramin. They are even closer to oak, which has a similar color and texture. Like other wood materials, it is considered a wood fiber material. Several key performance indicators indicate that rubberwood's density is not significantly lower than oak's, but rather very close. Domestic rubberwood has an air-dry density of 0.61 g/cm³, while imported rubberwood can reach 0.65 g/cm³. Oak, on the other hand, has an air-dry density of 0.66 to 0.77 g/cm³. Both are deciduous woods (i.e., hardwoods). The end-face hardness of rubberwood is 5492 N, while that of oak is 6510 to 10,000 N. The flexural strength of rubberwood is 91.8 MPa, while that of oak is 88.1 to 118 MPa.

Rubberwood's bending strength is slightly lower than oak's. Based on the physical and mechanical index classification standard, both are classified as Class III, making it less prone to bending and deformation. The harder the wood, the more susceptible it is to cracking. Oak, with its hard texture, is difficult to completely dehydrate. Furniture made from undehydrated wood may begin to warp, shrink, and crack after a year or two. The hardness difference between rubberwood and oak makes oak more prone to cracking.

The price of oak furniture in the market is much higher than that of rubber wood furniture, which is more due to consumer psychology.