Masonite

Masonite is a type of hardboard made of steam-cooked and pressure-molded wood fibres in a process patented by William H. Mason. This product is also known as Quartrboard,Isorel, hernit, karlit, torex or treetex.

A product resembling masonite (hardboard) was first made in England in 1898 by hot-pressing waste paper. Masonite was patented in 1924 in Laurel, Mississippi, by William H. Mason, who was a friend and protégé of inventor Thomas Edison. Mass production started in 1929. In the 1930s and 1940s, Masonite was used for many applications including doors, roofing, walls, desktops, and canoes. It was sometimes used for house siding.

Similar "tempered hardboard" is now a generic product made by many forest product companies. The Masonite Corporation entered the door business as a supplier of facings in 1972, and was purchased in 2001 by Premdor Corporation, a door maker, from its former parent International Paper; it no longer supplies generic hardboard.

Masonite is formed using the Mason method, in which wood chips are disintegrated by saturating them with 100 psi steam, then increasing the steam or air pressure to 400 psi and suddenly releasing them through an orifice to atmospheric pressure. Forming the fibers into boards on a screen, the boards are then pressed and heated to form the finished product with a smooth burnished finish. (Later a dry process with two burnished surfaces was also used.) The original lignin in the wood serves to bond the fibers without any added adhesive. The long fibers give Masonite a high bending strength, tensile strength, density, and stability. Unlike other composite wood panels, no formaldehyde-based resins are used to bind the fibers in Masonite.

Artists have often used it as a support for painting, and in artistic media such as linocut printing. Masonite's smooth surface makes it a suitable material for table tennis tables and skateboard ramps.

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