Materials, Methods & Technologies, Volume 8, 2014

Abstract: Undesirable colour alterations are not so rare during wood drying. Beech wood is a valuable wood species for furniture making but it is very prone to such discolourations. A darker area may appear in the interior of beech wood planks (known as “sandwich effect”) during kiln drying but the intensity of the phenomenon may be milder when planks are exposed to indirect light for some short period. In present paper these colour differences are discussed using colourimetric analysis, when planks appearing “sandwich effect” were exposed to indirect light for 12 months. Wood colour showed less differences month after month, compared to initial differences. Adding varnish just after surface planning contributed to higher visible differences.