1. Hardness of wood is measured by their Janka rating. You can easily google "Janka rating merbau" and it will give you the rating. The higher the number, the stronger it is. Spruce Pine has one of the lowest Janka rating - 350 (softwood), while Ironwood / Belian has one of the highest - 3,020. Merbau is 1,710.

2. Some of the wood above are from temperate countries, some are tropical countries. Used for different purpose. Rule of thumb is tropical wood are better suited to Malaysia weather due to humidity, heat (wood expands and contracts), indoor Vs outdoor usage, etc

3. Kayu Besi - I would guess they are referring to Ironwood or Belian or Ulin or billian wood. Found primarily in Borneo, the only wood above that termites can't bite thru 🤣. Hard to find as needs to be processed before can't be exported from Sabah / Sarawak. Has one of the highest Janka ratings of the wood above. Used to built jetty and bridges in East Malaysia.

4. Different wood has different colour, textured, grains. Some might not like the yellowish colour of teak, others might prefer the American Oak feel.

This post has been edited by bigred: Jan 10 2018, 07:01 PM