For thousands of years, wood has been one of the most invaluable materials to humans. It is readily available in nature, and occurs in every geographical zone as a renewable, sustainable, instant raw material. Wood has the most balanced set of characteristics of all natural materials. It offers high compressive strength whilst remaining elastic, a low weight-to-strength ratio and high aesthetics, and is easy to process and recycle. Hence, it is a material that is used not only for furniture, paper, and musical instruments but is also ideal for construction purposes. Indeed, islands that are now bare of trees were ...