RECONSTITUTED WOOD PRODUCT: BONDED RENDED WOOD

A process for forming a reconsolidated wood product (22) from a plurality of flexible open lattice work webs (14) each of naturally interconnected wood strands, each said web being formed by partially rending natural wood (10) so that said strands thereof are generally aligned along a common grain direction, a substantial proportion of said strands of each web being substantially discrete but incompletely separated from each other, said process comprising superposing said webs, compressing the superposed webs (14) to consolidate the strands whilst maintaining them such as to substantially extend in said original grain direction and bonding said strands and webs together to hold them in juxtapositions assumed pursuant to said consolidation, said bonding process comprises coating (110) the strands of the webs (14) with wax, applying a bonding agent (110, 113) to the strands whose impregnation into the natural wood of the strands is restricted by the wax coating, removing (115) excess bonding agent from the superposed webs and curing the bonding agent during said compression and consolidation of the strands of the superposed webs.