Yes, engineered wood is a mainstay of construction. But all of those processes were and are set up to be able to process a large volume in a relatively short time and leave very little to no waste, and what waste there is is sold off as fuel.

Plywood - especially the higher grades - is amazing stuff. I visited a plywood factory in Ontario and it really opened my eyes to how clever and precise the manufacturing of various kinds of engineered wood is.

It is, the WWII Mosquito Fighter-Bomber was made from high grade ply and it flew faster than contemporary aluminium fighters, was incredibly durable (except for some de-lamination problems in hot humid far-east environs) and was actually stunningly beautiful.

Also mostly plywood: the Spruce Goose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_Hercules

which is simply massive: 320 ft wingspan, the largest of any flown aircraft.

Haha, that was the first aircraft I thought of too!

The earlier de Havilland Comet was also incredibly beautiful and made by innovative woodworking techniques: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.88_Comet?oldfo..., one of my favorite planes ever.

I too was surprised to find out just how much variety and quality of plywood there is. I always thought it was a relatively cheap, kind of crappy alternative to good lumber. But since I've started following hobby laser cutting, I've been finding out that good plywood really makes a difference if you want good results.

I've had really good experiences with birch based plywood of the better grades and for heavier applications a grade that is used in construction to make the forms for concrete casting.

Plywood: How it's made;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGnr8ATHHX8

Where in Ontario? This would be interesting to see for myself.

Thessalon iirc on Hwy 17.

Plywood is the best combination of strength, weathering resistance, and workability of any material I've yet used. MDF is way cheaper, but it is so much weaker pound-for-pound[1].

1: One carpenter I talked to complained that MDF won't hold screws, and apparently this is a common complaint, but if you drill properly sized pilot holes and use sheetmetal screws it's pull-out strength is fine, particularly since you need thicker MDF than ply, so you can use a longer screw.

The primary advantage of MDF is dimensional stability. Dimensional stability is highly desirable for surfaces receiving veneers or high pressure ("plastic") laminate finishes. It's not really intended for structural applications, but for furniture and cabinetry it can be a reasonable option.

Another advantage MDF has is that it's heavy. Granted for most things you'd rather have light, but for stuff like speaker cabinets and sound deadening you want heavy.

Also, MDF makes a bad material for speaker cabinets. A good speaker cabinet not only is heavy, it have a really good characterized sound qualities that MDF, plastic or cheap plywood can't give. Because that are expensive!

Yep, plywood gets a bad rap: it's incredibly strong stuff. Aircraft plywood can be used to build entire aircraft, marine plywood can withstand harsh weather conditions for years, and birch or hardwood plywood can look very pretty.

Some plywood is amazing. Most is crap. Generally the stuff you buy at home depot for $25/sheet is crap.

And people tend to confuse plywood with OSB, MDO, MDF, etc.

And while marine plywood (BS-1088) is great stuff, and fir marine plywood is also pretty nice stuff, it's not magic. BS-1088 is will rot in a morning dew and fir checks horribly. You have to protect it carefully and keep it protected.

Fire treated wood is called 'shou-sugi-ban' in Japanese and is occasionally used in commercial and residential applications. Fire treated wood has the benefit of being naturally fire-resistant, insect resistant, and water/rot resistant while also being a natural treatment (as opposed to a man-made chemical treatment.)

https://shousugiban.org/

https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/materi...

HGTV's Fixer Upper had an episode where this treatment was used. They were fixing up an old boathouse and decided to use this method for the exterior.

There’s also stabilized wood. You basically fill all the space inside the wood with a hard resin. Small pieces are used for things like jewelry, knife scales, etc.

At what point do we have to stop considering processed wood as wood, but as a wood/resin or wood/adhesive composite?

Sometime after we stop considering processed food as food, but a food/sugar or food/preservative composite.

Stabilized wood definitely has a lot more in common with resin than with wood, in its mechanical properties.

Your comment reminded me of a technique that guitar makers have been using in recent years, which is to make wood more stable by roasting it in a kiln (which removes the moisture from the wood, and supposedly increases its stability).

If by "recent" you mean developed about 200 years ago, then yes.

From what I've seen, it's become more popular recently (last 10 years).

Its a technique older than guitars, not recent at all. Maybe you just took notice?

well at the very least the technique has been packaged/marketed as “torrefied wood”, and i think that’s what is being referenced here