Buy to keep: wooden furniture

Whether new or antique, it takes excellent materials and superb craftsmanship to create furniture that you'll be proud to hand down to your children. Here are a few pointers on differentiating between great furniture; good, serviceable furniture; and junk.

• Most fine furniture, whether antique or new, is made of hardwoods, such as cherry, walnut, maple, oak, teak, or of mahogany.
• However, some of the most valued antique furniture is made of old-growth pine. Cut from tall, old trees, this was a strong, durable wood with a beautiful grain.
• Sadly, the old-growth pine is mostly gone. Plenty of serviceable furniture is built from new-growth pine, but it doesn't come close to the beauty and strength of old-growth furniture.

  Your options:

• Excellent, extremely durable furniture can be made from plywood. "Cabinet-grade" plywood is available with fine hardwood top veneers.
• This material is strong and won't expand and contract like solid wood. As a result, panels won't crack, and joinery is not likely to loosen due to humidity changes.
• Low-grade furniture, especially kitchen cabinets, is often made of veneered particleboard.
• This furniture can look great, but particleboard is weaker than plywood or solid wood and doesn't hold fasteners as well.
• If it gets soaked, it can turn into something that resembles oatmeal.

• Check the joinery. The best solid wood furniture relies on precisely made interlocking joints to hold it together — for example, drawers that are dovetailed together rather than nailed or screwed.
• Narrow dovetails of varied spacing and width are the hallmark of a handmade piece. But regularly spaced and sized machine-made dovetails are just as strong.
• Other signs of quality furniture include mortise-and-tenon or doweled joints and wooden corner blocks that have been glued and screwed in place.

• Check the finish. There should be finish on all surfaces. If the bottom of a tabletop, for example, is not finished, that surface will absorb more moisture than the finished top.
• This could cause the top to cup, split, or warp.
• Run your hands over all the surfaces of the piece, and make sure everything is smooth to the touch.