Functional and Eclectic Furniture Designs in Western Hemlock

Western hemlock is prized for its well-known properties:

• Good strength-to-weight ratio, while being lighter in weight as compared to traditional woods
• Easy to work with and have excellent machining properties.
• Aids excellent workmanship, turns, planes and shapes well and can be sanded to a smooth finish.
• Good gluing, staining, and coating properties.
• Good fastening ability i.e. nailing and screw holding. All Canadian wood species including Western hemlock are duly graded, sized, and seasoned, require no sorting.
• Western hemlock and all the other Canadian wood species are available locally through a pan India network of 42 Canadian wood stockists in 23 cities.
• Canadian wood species are legally harvested from certified and sustainably managed forests of B.C. Canada

Architects and designers are constantly busy designing and evolving new trends. It is highly satisfying to note how quickly Western hemlock, has become a species of their choice and they can shape it and make it look like the way they want.

Customers taste and preference is also evolving with changing times – they are now more than ever drawn towards furniture that is contemporary, light and easy to move – a shift away from traditional dark and heavy/bulky furniture.

Biophilic benefits of Canadian wood as a natural material is another important criterion of consideration of selection for customers In a world dominated by manmade/synthetic/materials.

Consumers are making environmentally conscious decisions In a world of virtual reality. Wood adds a human dimension to the built environment, helping one feel more at ease and happy in an environment embellished with wood including furniture.

Furniture today has become an extension of owners' personality that reflects their taste and outlook.

TRENDS

• Natural earthy colour palettes like green, blue and cream are in vogue.
• Customers are increasingly preferring sleek looks over heavy and bulky furniture.
• Retro styles from the 1970's are an inspiration for designers to create contemporary furniture giving a nostalgic nod to look from the past.
• Painted furniture is also making a comeback as it blends classic looks of a traditional interior with modern convenience.

Western hemlock – enabler of creative expressions and an excellent option to traditional solid wood

Western hemlock scores over traditional hardwood species including teak in terms of stiffness (MOE), treatability, planing and radial & tangential shrinkage, besides it scores well on other parameters such as density andstrength (MOR).
MOE = Modulus of Elasticity, is commonly used to measure the relative stiffness and degree of deflection of the material when force is applied and released. MOR = Modulus of Rupture, is measure of relative strength of material under pressure.

Canadian wood species have proven to be excellent alternatives to traditionally used wood species in India. These offer better workability, good strength, and value for money.

Western hemlock is the single most plentiful species growing in the coastal forests of British Columbia. It has firmly established itself as an outstanding wood for furniture and a large variety of interior applications such as doors, panelling, ceiling, mouldings and so on.
Hemlock is straight-grained, even textured and somewhat lustrous. Heartwood is pale brown with a purplish tinge, resembling tropical wood, making it an ideal choice for tropical wood lovers. It is available as plain-sawn lumber showing inconspicuous growth rings. While vertical grain (VG) or radial cut lumber shows an elegant strip figure. This mature and dimensionally stable wood has low shrinkage and swelling, making it an ideal species for wide variety of applications.
Western hemlock thus presents innumerable options for interior applications/products to architects and designers for creating a well-endowed library of designs.

APPLICATIONS:

Western hemlock lumber (sawn wood) is highly recommended and coveted for making furniture, solid wood doors. Further finger jointed and edge glued boards (FJEG) in Hemlock are being increasingly used for making door frames and furniture, besides other applications.
It is also widely used for veneered interior panelling and is the preferred choice for mouldings. Like other Canadian wood species Hemlock too is available as a duly graded, sized and seasoned lumber.

Canadian Wood: Handholding, Education, Training and Knowledge sharing.

FII creates awareness of its Canadian wood species, their properties, and applications amongst its target audience through PR & Outreach activities including use of earned and paid media and participation in trade shows, wood industry meets and panel discussions.

Canadian wood (FII) as an organisation supports manufacturers through its “Try Canadian Wood” program by doing product trials for prototyping and developing samples, this helps guide them through working with Canadian wood species, understanding their properties and evaluate raw material and end product quality.

The well-qualified and experienced FII (Canadian wood) team provides techno-commercial support to its target audience through handholding, technical support, educates and trains through workshops and seminars/webinars. Additionally, FII engages one-on-one with production teams at the factories and regularly engages with its target audience and the stakeholders. FII team further assists timber importers and stockists in selection of Canadian wood species and their grades for sourcing the same. In addition FII (Canadian wood) team also engages with and provides support to architects, designers, developers and builders in selecting the appropriate species and grade based on the end-use.

Other initiatives include knowledge sharing by organising wood colleges for sharing of best practices in techniques of manufacturing and building with wood besides arranging professional expertise from B.C. Canada upon request on direct cost-to-pay basis.

Canadian Wood: Sustainable by nature - Innovative by design.

Canadian Wood engages Industry Stakeholders in Hyderabad with a Seminar on “Versatility of Wood'

Hyderabad, 18th May 2023: The British Columbia (B.C.) provincial government's crown corporation, Forestry Innovation Consulting India Pvt Ltd (FII India), popularly known as Canadian Wood hosted a seminar with the theme, 'Versatility of Wood' in Hyderabad. The seminar focused on the wide range of applications made with responsibly-sourced wood from B.C. Canada, as well as the increasing demand for sustainable wood in India.
The event saw a strong turnout from manufacturers, contractors, architects and designers, and builders and developers. The seminar began with a presentation on the versatility of Canadian wood by Dr. Jimmy Thomas, Assistant Director, Technical Services of Canadian Wood. He spoke about the unique features of the Canadian wood species and its sustainability aspect and how it can be used in different applications in the woodworking industry.

Some of the distinguished speavkers from Hyderabad included Mr. A Chandra Shekar, Director of E-doors; Mr. P.L. Narayana, Founder of Nesca Homes, and Mr. Deepak Gupta, Director of Sales and Expansion of Artius Interior Products. They spoke about their experiences with Canadian wood and how it has helped them in their projects.
The seminar, which was seamlessly moderated by Mr. Ritesh Kumar, Assistant Director, Business Development, Canadian Wood, concluded with a vote of thanks by Mr. Arif Moosa, Manager, Marketing of Canadian Wood. He expressed his gratitude to both the speakers and the attendees for their active involvement in the seminar.