It is in practice in most of the furniture shops and
allied industries to stain wood with artificial colour either
to hide the defects and imperfections of wood surface or to
imitate and impart the popular colour and shades of teak,
mahagony and other valuable species of wood. By this process
cheap and inferior woods are used for furniture and fixture
with better look. But modern outlook has a strong trend in
favour of light coloured or blonde furniture. This is one
of the many causes for which bleaching of wood is going to
play an important role in furniture and cabinet industry.
Another important reason for bleaching wood is to give an
uniform colour to wood which are finished with clear and
transparent lacquers or varnishes. In some species of wood
the intensity of colour depend#mostly on the maturity of
tree. The colour, even in the same species of different age
groups, varies to suoh an extent that it is practically
impossible to match and produce uniform coloured furniture
pieces or panels out of the wood from different trees.
Besides, individual pieces of wood may be abnormally darker
due to other reasons and may contain mineral streaks and
other blemishes which may be removed or made lighter to
match the surrounding wood.