Merbau Edge Glued Panels & Worktops

Merbau is also known as Mirabow, and is found in Malaysia & Indonesia. It is generally better known as a hard and heavy that is used for flooring, although it is also sliced into veneer.

The wood is rather hard and heavy (830 kg/m³ when dried), and the texture is coarse but even. The grain is interlocked and often wavy, and sulphur-yellow and dark-coloured deposits, that are characteristic of the species, can commonly be seen in the vessel cavities.

Merbau sapwood is whitish to pale yellow, and sharply differentiated from the heartwood, which can be orange-brown to brown or dark red-brown, weathering over time to darker shades. Lighter-coloured parenchymatous markings often give the wood an ornamental figure on tangential surfaces.

Merbau has good strength properties and is similar to mengkulang in this respect. It has medium to good working qualities. Reducing the cutting angle to 20 deg is beneficial to avoid the tendency for the grain to tear out in quarter-sawn material during planing and moulding.

A high incidence of gum in merbau tends to collect on saws, and the wood tends to split on nailing, but holds screws well, and can be stained and polished reasonably well. The yellow deposits are soluble in water the wood is durable.

The wood experiences small movement due to moisture, and the texture is coarse.

Finger jointed merbau panels are regularly used as merbau worktops, and in the manufacture of all types of furniture.