The elegant design and structural integrity of the Ming style Chinese classical furniture cannot be made possible without the skillful hands of craftsmen. In the Ming dynasty, artisans manifested their respect for the spirit of woods by first examining the grain of woods and then by using them in a furniture piece such that the beautiful grains were best pronounced.
The following is a brief introduction to how we make Chinese classic furniture. It includes an awesome 15 discrete processes - and the finishing processes will be repeated for at least four to six times, the steps could be even more. The repeated application of patch, lacquer and stain onto the furniture coupled with fine polishing allows a highly protective finish be made, yet one refined with wood grains clearly visible under a liquid luster finish.
Wood SourcingMost of our furniture is made with blackwood sourced from Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). The wood logs are transported to the lumber yards in China by trucks. The logs range from 2 to 4 meters in length. We then purchase the wood in units of cubic meters. Being circular in nature, the logs volume is calculated based on the areas of the two ends and the length of the log. Due to its higher quality and scarcity, each cubic meter of blackwood can be as high as 4 times more expensive than soft wood like elm. There are different types of blackwood, namely "black", "pale", and "red". We choose "pale" blackwood for our furniture as it has the finest and most beautiful grain, together with a relatively higher diameter.
After a specified volume of wood is purchased, the lumber yard will then slice the logs in different thickness according to our requirements for various furniture members, such as 1.5cm, 2cm, and 4.5cm. The logs might also be transported to dedicated saw mills for the slicing. The sliced wood is shown stacked up in upper right photo.
The burl wood we use comes from wall panels of antique houses or cabinets, which date back to around one hundred years ago. There is also new burl wood in the market. However, the wood grain won't have the gentle bud formations as the olden ones. The photo on the left shows the original burl wood panel, which doesn’t show the pattern of burl wood. However, the grain will be shown beautifully after the restoration through no less than six times of sanding and polishing. Due to its high demand and drying.
Wood Treating
Wood as a plant contains water in its structure. It is therefore very important that excess water be removed before we start using the wood to make furniture. The easy crack of lower quality furniture - in particular those made from soft wood - is due very often to insufficient drying of wood. After the wood planks are transported to the factory, they will be stacked up in a highly ventilated area for air drying. This will take from weeks to months, depending on the relative dryness of the timber. After that we use a traditional method called barn drying to dry the wood. Traditional style of coal burners are used to gently dry the wood in a tightly locked barn for one to one and a half months, allowing ample time for the wood to contract before we actually work on the wood. However, please note that the water removal process will never complete. As dry as the wood is treated, the moment it is taken out of the dry room it will start taking in moisture. Therefore in an extremely dry environment some minor contraction of wood in a finished piece of furniture should be expected. Solid wood furniture, except that literally sealed with heavy lacquer and chemicals, regardless of their age is expanding and shrinking all the time, subject to the location’s existing climatic condition. It should be viewed as a natural growth process of wood.
Members CuttingUpon receiving a high level design diagram, the craftsmen will determine what are the best ways to do the underlying construction, and the individual joinery mechanisms. A life size template - as shown on the right - will be made on thin plywood to further cross check the design, as well as to help cut the individual wooden members. The wood planks will be sawn into individual wooden members using power saws. The sawn wooden members will then be placed into the drying barn for further drying.
Wood PressingThe wood members are then put through a pressing machine to make them straight and flat. Before pressing, the surface of wood members shows lines of grooves created by the slicing saw in the saw mill, as shown in the top left photo. These grooves are removed by the pressing machine, during which lots of wood particles are generated. To further remove the rough fiber of the wood, wood members are then put through a power sander as shown on the right. The vigorous sanding produces abundant wood flecks. This is the first time that the wood surface is sanded.
The sanded wood members are then piled up together in a ventilated and shaded area, waiting for joints to be made.
Joinery Making
What makes Classic Chinese furniture sturdy but simple in architecture is the intelligent use of joinery. The strict rule of practice is – on Classic Chinese furniture, no nails or screws are to be used between any wooden components.
After the wood blocks are smoothed, it is now ready to create joineries. The top left photo shows a drill fitted with a mortise creation bit being pressed onto a wood member, while the lower one shows the opening of a groove.
Shown on the bottom left is a large lattice screen usually used for inlays or as window frames. The triangular pattern is formed by numerous small wood members joined together as shown in the bottom right photo. Not only does this architecture prevents the use of nails, the members can be taken out and reassembled when needed. More importantly, this method was invented hundreds of years ago as a sparing use of the precious hardwood.
The normal diameter of a blackwood tree is around 30 - 50cm. As this width might not be sufficient for furniture with large panels like dining table top, two or more wood planks are merged together in such cases. The merging is done by the traditional Chinese joinery method – tongue and groove joint. Light beige colored organic glue is added to further strengthen the bond. However, please note that glue in Chinese furniture making always plays a secondary role.
An example of merged wood is shown in the top right photo. You can easily see the joining line. However, after subsequent staining and lacquering, only experienced eyes will be able to tell where the dividing line is on a table top!
Restoring & Carving
The Restoring and Carving process is optional depending on the design and material used on a piece.
Up until now we have been discussing how we make a piece of new furniture. However, there are times that it makes more sense to use an existing one. For example, an antique screen can be used beautifully as a coffee table top. Moreover, as discussed earlier, old burl wood serves as perfect inlay panel for cabinets.
Firstly a lacquer remover is applied, followed by scratching such that the old lacquer is completely removed. This is necessary as certain recent lattice work or panels use heavy lacquer to cover the original wood grains. The joints are then taken apart and reassembled to ensure tight connection. Optionally size of screen will be adjusted to fit the desired coffee table top.
Carving may be carried out to accentuate the design and look of certain furniture. However, Ming Style furniture never over-uses carving, as it destroys the overall simple and elegant lines.
The top right diagram shows our craftsman working on an apron for a table, followed by the carving of a leg for bamboo style shelf. Note the use of cables to fix direction of leg to prevent it from turning in the carving. Each of the bamboo knot is carved this way. Counting all the number of knots in a bamboo style shelf, one can easily imagine the amount of time and effort required.
There are numerous kinds of carving knives designed for different functions, as shown on the left. A highlight of a carved leg for bamboo chair is shown on the right. The mortise is used for connecting the seating panel.
AssemblingThe independent wood members are now ready to be assembled into a piece of furniture. Our workers will firstly put the wood members together to see if there needs any fine-tuning of joinery. If so, the blocks are taken out and put through automatic sanding machines like the continuous sanding belt shown on the right. For fine tuning of other surfaces, we use other sanding tools. Please note that we usually saw the wood members initially larger than their ideal sizes. For joinery, tongues (tenons) should be larger and groove (mortises) should be smaller than their ideal sizes. This enables the possibility of fine tuning in this step. Or else, the joinery won’t be as fit as desired when all the wood members are put together.
After fine tuning of wood surfaces and joints, it is now ready to do final assemble for a piece of furniture. As in the olden days, glue is used to further strengthen the joints. We take much pride in the fact that the joints we make are so fit that all the individual pieces have to be hammered in, as shown in the upper left photo. The bottom left one shows the craftsman testing the fitting of a spandrel.
Scraping & RefiningAlthough strange in words, this is actually what we do to the piece of furniture in this step.
Flat and fine metal file is used to further smoothen the wood surface and remove irregularities. The metal scraper will be used to scrap or peel away the external fibers of all the wooden surfaces. It will also smoothen all the curves and lines. As seen in the top left photo, the finer grains are reviewed after the surface fibers are removed. Considered a crucial step in fine cabinet making, this step regrettably is not practiced by most furniture manufacturers now.
Then, various metal files are used to smooth out and refine different beaded edges, mouldings and grooves. It takes our craftsman one and a half days to completely finish the surfaces and lines for a folding chair.
The difference made by this scraping and refining is evident - you just need to use your fingers to feel the different corners and edges of a piece.
SandingThis can be considered the last step before the finishes steps. One shouldn't be misled into thinking that sanding is only done in this step. In all the subsequent steps sanding is done, in progressive finer grade of sand paper. In this step 120-grit production paper is used, followed later by finer ones like 240 to 400. The sanding process is a lot more difficult than what it seems. Given the many different angled curves and lines for a piece of Chinese furniture, the craftsman needs to sand the piece fine but at the same time all the curves and lines should be preserved intact. Unskillful craftsman might easily blunt beaded edges or corners made asymmetrical. Equally worse is a piece not sanded enough. In such case the surfaces won't be smooth, in particular around the corners of joint wooden members.
Patching Just like the sanding step the patching step as described here is just one of the many that will be done for a piece of furniture. It's described here because this particular patching is done before the piece is subject to water polishing and bleaching. Subsequent patching steps, performed after the bleaching, will be intermixed with the lacquering steps.
The patch for fine Chinese furniture does not use the same materials as that ordinarily used by modern craftsmen in interior fit-out or furniture making. The chalk power is the same, but the chalk is mixed with Natural Lacquer, an organic lacquer extracted from the sap of a tree called Lacquer Tree. The Japanese call this lacquer Urushi, which is regarded as one of the highly respected traditional art form. The Natural Lacquer is irritant to the skin of many people when it hasn't been dried, so the gloves are a must in handling it. Due to the oxidation process of Natural Lacquer, the patch after having been applied turns from the original light brown to dark brown color. Contrary to normal patch, the patch won't air dry. It will only dry when the piece of furniture is placed into the Lacquer room for drying, which is kept hot and humid - the crucial environment for Natural Lacquer to dry. It takes a few hours for it to dry completely.
Before we proceed, let us look at howthis very different patch is made on the right. The top right photo shows the original Natural Lacquer, which turns dark brown the moment it gets contact with air.
Water polishing & BleachingThe dried piece of furniture is now ready to be cleaned, water polished and bleached such that its surfaces are clear and clean for subsequent finishes steps. A bleached piece of furniture also displays more even wood grains. We use 120-grit sandpaper block together with water to clean and polish all the surfaces for one hour, as shown on the left. The piece of furniture is then left under the sun to be dried completely. Alternatively, electric dehumidifier can be used in an overcast day. The lower left photo shows the water polished piece of furniture.
The piece of furniture will then be sanded again with a finer sandpaper (240-grit), followed by another round of patching and drying in the Lacquer room. After the piece of furniture is dried, it will be bleached.
As can be seen in the photos on the right, the yellow substance is the impurities being removed. The piece of furniture will then be cleaned with water and then dried under the sun. To completely remove the bleach, this water cleaning and drying process is repeated for six times. It won't be hard to understand the labor intensity involved.
The bottom right photo shows a chair after the bleaching and cleaning. You can see that the grain of wood is much more evident. It is also much purer and uniform such that subsequent stain is easier to be applied. This piece is then put into the dry room for complete drying before we formally proceed into the finishes step.
Staining
After the piece of furniture is dried thoroughly, which takes a few days to weeks, it is then patched, dried and sanded with finer grain sandpaper (320-grit). The particles are then blown away by pressurized air, as shown anti-clockwise from the top left photo.
We will then apply stain to the piece of furniture. The stain is a mixture of water dissolved red, yellow and green element colors. The stain is applied not with brush but with a piece of rag. The stained piece of furniture is much darker than the original one. It is now brought to the dry room for drying again. The dried piece of furniture is shown on the right.
This is just one of the several staining cycles that will be performed. To ensure the stain is absorbed deep and even, no matter how light or how dark a piece is, this step will be performed multiple times.
Lacquering
The dried piece of furniture is now ready to be lacquered. The lacquer is the same as the one mixed with patch and applied before the water polishing process. It is called Natural Lacquer, used by all the fine antique furniture in the olden days. The finish created by Natural Lacquer is unparalleled, being a lot more attractive and protective to the piece of furniture.
To dramatically cut short the time and cost in the finishes steps, lots of furniture makers nowadays will apply a thick coating of synthetic lacquer (or what is called hardener in the trade) before Natural Lacquer is applied. Though the furniture may also be claimed to be made of Natural Lacquer, it however lacks the natural beauty and understated sheen of pure Natural Lacquer. Contrary to pure Natural Lacquer, this kind of finish won't improve over time, and will give off an artificial plastic film like effect on the surface.
The Natural Lacquer is applied by a rag over the furniture surface, much like rubbing furniture oil - but a lot more strenuous. As the Natural Lacquer won't air dry, so the rubbing can create a very fine and edgeless effect without fear of partial drying during the process. The piece of furniture will then be taken to the Lacquer room to dry, which will take a few hours time for complete drying. It takes a lot of skill to maintain a constant highly humid and hot environment in the Lacquer room, especially considering the wide variety of environmental conditions.
Fine Polishing
After the lacquered piece of furniture is dried thoroughly, it will be fine polished in sequentially finer abrasive materials, from fine grade of sand paper to the ultimate finest grade of steel wool - as shown on the left. The process will sand down the lacquer to a very fine surface.
The piece will then be put into the dry room to dry again, waiting to start the finishing steps all over again - patching, staining, lacquering, polishing and then drying. It is only through this repeated steps that a fine but protective finish be made. It takes us at least five times of finishing cycles to produce our trademark finish, and for rougher wood surfaces it may take us up to eight times.
Had we opt for the synthetic finish, or the shellac finish much used for the rustic looking furniture including antique, the finishing time can be cut short to just two to three days. It may be tempting to think otherwise with the advancement in technology but the old saying is still true - it takes slow and long time to make fine pieces. There is simply no magic to beautifully crafted pieces.
WaxingTo provide further protection to the piece of furniture, and as a final dressing to the finish, wax is then applied to the whole piece of furniture. It is now ready to be quality checked and packed for shipment.
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For example, the mortise and tenon joint for connecting circular members at right angles requires the tenon member to have curved shoulders that fit onto the mortised member.
