The devil you know

摘要

A while ago I was asked by a colleague for my recommendation for a coating for a material called Vitex. I was totally blindsided never having heard of the material although, inexplicably, an image of foamed insulation came to mind! The cognoscenti among you will know that Vitex is, in fact, a tropical hardwood, which is being imported from the Solomon Islands as an alternative to Kwila. We, at Resene, had no practical knowledge of it, although it was not too difficult to turn up the measured properties of the material.This did allow a reasonably intelligent prediction to be made but one not backed up by exposure work in New Zealand.