Recently we just got a wooden chest of drawers (タンス). It’s about 40 years old.
Most of it is made from solid heavy wood but the surface of the drawers is so shiny, almost like they have golden metallic sheen. They feel very smooth with light textures on some areas. Since I’m a complete noob, I can’t tell if this part is MDF or real wood? The furniture has a sour smell to it (probably formaldehyde) which was the reason why I thought it could be MDF, although maybe the smell is from the lacquer they use? Any suggestions is highly appreciated 🙇🏻♀️
[Here are the photos](https://imgur.com/a/tM2NGbV)
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/vmahde/hi_does_anyone_know_much_about_japanese_wooden/
7 comments
It looks like a thin layer of real wood used as veneer on the outside of another piece of wood, not MDF. I believe that MDF would have been uncommon or not used 40 years ago, but I might be off with that. Anyway, a lot of old Japanese woodworking utilized thin pieces of wood overlayed on cheaper(?) wood backing. Based on the third picture, the layer on the chest you posted doesn’t look that thin, either, which is a good thing- it won’t be scratched through!
This question is better for a woodworking sub reddit. Mdf has no grain pattern so this is not mdf. The outter layer is most likely a more expensive and prettier wood layer. The sour smell is most likely the wood itself and that depends on the type of wood used
Agree with the other two comments. Laminating is a common way to make cheap timber look expensive. The laminate is peeled off an expensive log in a thin, continuous sheet, then applied over planks of cheaper wood so it looks like one wide, solid plank of the fancy. It’s a widely used technique in furniture history, for centuries.
TL;DR: while most MDF is laminated, not all laminates are MDF. You’re safe.
Thank you all for the comments, really appreciate it!
It’s almost certainly cheap wood veneered with something nicer for the grain pattern.
If the chest is very light, it may be made of Paulownia which lots of old furniture is.
Definitely solid wood with a fairly thick veneer over it. This finish looks like 柿渋 – kakishibu, which is persimmon tannin. It sometimes has a faint sour smell to it
Lots of Japanese furniture is just utter crap. Forty years old stuff made on the cheap would have chipped or delaminated to some degree by now. Looks like the inside of the drawers are holding up well, and on junk that’s a place that falls apart earlier, as cheaper materials and methods are used in places that don’t normally come into view.
Turn the thing over and look at the bottoms and bottom edges of parts that would normally never be seen. If you can’t clearly see chipboard in places that they didn’t even bother laminating then you’re probably alright assuming it was made with good quality materials and construction.