Wood Q

[SteveF]

Hey All,
Wood questions are pretty iffy at the best of times but thought you might be able to pick this species.I spotted this in the local Mitre 10,it's heavy,hard and is waxy to the touch,and no one could tell me what it was.It was being sold as decking..




any takers.......Steve

[Bob Connor]

Spotted Gum - maybe.

The pic's a bit rough.

I looked at it for decking around my place but ended up getting Merbau 'cause it was cheaper.

Bob

[SteveF]

Howdy Bob
I know it's a lousy pic,I tried to sharpen it a little but if I go too far it ends up a completer mess,guess it's time for a new camera.Apart from being as hard as rock and waxy(or because of) I might try and glue it up and see how it works as fretboards,price was good too........cheers.....Steve

[Allen]

It looks very much like a huge pile of off cuts from a local joinery firm that were donated to the Cairns Woodworkers Guild. No one could tell me what it was either, but as you said, hard as hell. These pieces were from stair treads, so it probable wears pretty good too.

A few of the guys were making various projects out of it, and they found that they had to use epoxy to glue it up. Much too waxy for yellow glue, or so they said.

[James Mc]

I have a bit of grey ironbark (Eucalyptus drepanophylla) that was left over from an outside furniture project done by our council. Same colour and is hard as rock 1105 kg/m3. They are knocking a lot of it down in northern NSW and is becoming the budget native timber of choice for heavy duty outdoor applications. If you cut ironbark against the grain you should get fine needle-like splinters, be about the only dark coloured native hardwood that cuts that way.

Cheers

[matthew]

Looks like Merbau to me. They have the similar looking stuff at mitre Ten near me; heavy, dense, waxy, a bit like teak, the grain can be all knotted up.

They make up big beams of it for stair treads (instead of mahogany! )

I am making a tailpiec of out a piece i bought. it carves OK but tools lose their edge quickly and it tends to split at the edges if yer not careful.

[sebastiaan56]

Im in for Merbau as well. It looks like the sap wood to me. The heartwood is light coloured and speckled but the sapwood can be quite figured. Whatever it is it will make a cool fingerboard,