Avariety of materials are used to make furniture, but the primary structure ofmost furniture is based on three families of materials, used alone, or incombination. The three families of materials are:

•   wood

•   metal

•   plastics

 •   Wood

Wood is still the most used furniture material, and was almost the only materialused in most historic (pre 20th century) furniture. Wood used for furniture iseither:

(1)solid wood      (2)plywood

•   Solid wood

Toproduce a board measuring 1 inch thick, a tree is cut down and sawn to randomlengths of 6 to 12 feet. Since trees are round and boards are rectangular,there is substantial waste. Imagine a square within a circle and everythingoutside of the square is trashed. Next, the board desired is rough-cut from thelog, and the saw kerf wastes another centimeter down the length of the logevery time it makes a board. A 1 inch thick board must be rough cut to a littleless than 1-1/2 inches thick, then dried, which causes slight warpage. To makethe board flat and smooth, it must be planed, this trashes another 3/8 to 1/2inch. In producing a 1 inch thick board already the waste is greater than theyield. The board is just a random width and length, and the piece of furnitureis not even started. If the simplest stick chair is made, waste is another25-30%, and if a piece of furniture has any curves or uses a low yield speciesof wood, like cherry or walnut, the waste factor is another 100% to200%......or more.