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Anahaw

Description

Being the national plant of the Philippines, anahaw plant has different economic uses. Anahaw fan-shaped leaves are used for building house roofs, wall covers and fans. In urban areas, anahaw leaves are processed and used in both interior and exterior designs.

The leaves can also be laminated to form unique wall decors. Anahaw trunk is used as house pillars, house floors, bows, fishing rods, canes or walking sticks, arrow shafts, spear handles and polo clubs.

Anahaw (Livistonia rotundifolia) is a palm specie reaching a height of 20 meters. Like most palms, anahaw grows naturally only in forested areas. Often planted for ornamental purposes, it is a tall graceful palm with 1 to 2 meter long fan-shaped leaves which are ascending and crowded at the top.

Clusters of flowers hang from the base of the leafstalks. The hard wood bears small, round, yellowish, and fleshy fruits.

Extraction

Extracting a leaf from the anahaw plant is through cutting. Sharp tools are used to cut the leaves that are dried for a purpose.

Bamboo

Description

Bamboo is a versatile material and its utility extends beyond being a sturdy construction material and an exquisite interweaving strip. In the Philippines alone, cottages, handicraft, fishing, furniture and furnishings, low-cost housing and banana industries use giant bamboo as a major raw material. Giant Bamboo poles are used as framing for furniture. Strips of outer or inner skin are woven into furniture sidings, seats or backs. Crushed bamboos are laminated on wooden carcasses as a new trend in furniture design for door panels, headboards of beds and tabletops. Among its industrial uses are for the processing of quality print paper, production of parquet blocks for house flooring and the making of bamboo woven mats for light aircraft.

Dendrocalamus asper or giant bamboo has the biggest culm diameter and is the tallest among Philippine bamboos. The culms are quite straight and ornamental, developing a blue-grey-green cast and smooth covered with small hairs when mature. Though the culms are straight, they are not one of the thicker bamboos that are used in heavy-duty construction. Only giant bamboos are good for fences and ornamental sculpture.

Extraction

The suitable age for cutting bamboo varies according to its intended use. One to two-year-old bamboos are ideal for the manufacture of handicrafts, which require pliable bamboo splits. Two to three-year-old bamboo is preferable when the outer skin is needed, particularly if it is to be bleached. When durability is required, 4-6 year old bamboo must be used.

Bamboo poles are stacked upside down in a shaded but well-ventilated area. Kiln drying is also used, but it should be noted that gradual increase of temperature is needed to prevent rapid drying, which can cause splitting of the bamboo skin.

Traditional methods of preserving bamboo include immersing the material in salty water or in sandy seashore. Washing is another method when bamboo culms are painted with slaked lime. Chemicals are also often used to treat bamboo. One of the most economical ways of making bamboo insect-resistant is by treating it with caustic soda dissolved in water. The split or stripped bamboo is soaked in the solution for one week. For unsplit culms soaking requires 3-5 month.

Bamboo is bleached, dyed, finished with oil, or sprayed with paint and other finishes to improve quality and appearance. It is also used in combination with rattan, buri and other furniture materials.

Coconut Leaves

Description

The large palm is best known as a thatching and walling material for light-construction houses. Its fronds or leaflets have a especial wide usage as household articles such as raincoats, hats, coarse blankets, mats, bags, and wrapper for native delicacies. In other occasions, the leaflet epidermis is made into cigarette wrapper. The midribs are used for making brooms, baskets, and trays, as well as for tying bundles and sewing nipa shingles. Leafstalks serve as fuel, while splints prepared from the skin of the stems are used for making baskets.

Believed to be one of the oldest and previously most extensive types of its genus of the world, nipa is a creeping semi-aquatic feather palm unique for its adaptation to muddy soils along rivers and mangrove swamps or estuaries. The nipa palm is widely distributed in the Philippines, extensively growing in virtually all coastal regions of the country, It is valuable for its many uses and the ease with which it is harvested.

Out of the stout and creeping underground stem of the nipa, emerge rose-shaped clusters of erect feather-like leaves for about 7 m or more in length. Leaflets grow to be a meter long and 2 to 7 cm wide, rigid and slender tapering to a point. They are numerous, forming a dense mass of vegetation that is usually difficult to penetrate.

Extraction

Leaflets are gathered while unopened. It is then dried under the sun and then it is ready for weaving.

Coconut Wood

Description

Coconut wood is another material taken from the coconut palm and its one of the major raw materials that can be extracted from the tree. Coco wood is hard and its grains can be seen through naked eyes, making it a material used for the development of furniture, furnishings, and related Philippine products. The furniture and furnishings industry along with the fashion accessories industry use coconut wood for producing items.

The hardness of the coco wood differs from that of the whole palm tree since the latter becomes harder as it grows older. The outer area of the stem is the hardest part of the coconut tree whereas the core of the palm tree is soft and cannot be used for production.

Extraction

The long body of the coconut palm is the coco wood. The wood can be extracted using machines like chainsaw and a simple saw. Timber can then be delivered to the different industries or used for building houses and furniture. The wood is uniformly wet and approaches saturation throughout the whole trunk. Variations in moisture content are dependent on variations in density.

reshly cut wood is susceptible to infection by molds and stain fungi and also to attack by ambrosia beetle. Hence, it is essential to dip timber in a prophylactic chemical solution immediately after sawing if a clean product is required. Green coconut wood, without bark, in round and sawn form can be treated by soaking, using a water-borne preservative such as copper chrome arsenate. The limitation of this process is the duration of treatment that requires a long period and a large case for soaking the material.