Thread: Australian Timber Samples

Some more pics.
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Rob

I can't for the moment think of the correct expression for this tantilising glimpse of such a salivating collection of timbers.

I know it will be bit of work, but can you post some pics of each sample along with its description / common name?

There's two flindersias the can go into a pack of Qld maple, being F.brayleana which is Qld Maple, and F.pimenteliana which is Silkwood maple. Plus a couple of more obscure species like dirran maple and Claudie river maple that - well who's going to know because they all look the same. Flindersia covers a lot of good cabinet woods.

Even the official Qld maple F.brayleana can have huge variation in colour. I've seen everything from mustard yellow through reds and link browns and even got a " fluro peach" one once. Colour seems to be related to soil types which makes sense in terms of mineral uptake by the living tree. Brown pinks off heavy coastal alluvials, pink reds off deco and granites, yellows off the heavy basalts on the southern Tablelands, peach apricot of the white kaolin clays around Topaz.

There can be more colour variation between the same species from different locations then different species from the same one.

That's one hell of a nice box of goodies

No self-respecting NSW trained Carriage Builder would leave hinge screw slots that far out of alignment! Bloody Mexicans.

Originally Posted by John.G

There's two flindersias the can go into a pack of Qld maple, being F.brayleana which is Qld Maple, and F.pimenteliana which is Silkwood maple. Plus a couple of more obscure species like dirran maple and Claudie river maple that - well who's going to know because they all look the same. Flindersia covers a lot of good cabinet woods.

Even the official Qld maple F.brayleana can have huge variation in colour. I've seen everything from mustard yellow through reds and link browns and even got a " fluro peach" one once. Colour seems to be related to soil types which makes sense in terms of mineral uptake by the living tree. Brown pinks off heavy coastal alluvials, pink reds off deco and granites, yellows off the heavy basalts on the southern Tablelands, peach apricot of the white kaolin clays around Topaz.

There can be more colour variation between the same species from different locations then different species from the same one.

That's one hell of a nice box of goodies

John, I did my first trade in the Railways. When it came to timber purchasing they were uncompromising. They set the standard and pity help anyone that tried to "smuggle" what they thought was near enough into a bolster. The recent habit of blending species was never an option. Even the suggestion to the head purchasing officer would have had you finding your own way out through the maze of corridors that make up the Green House.
Oh, I remember those days well.

I agree Ken. But the reality is that the head purchasing officer wouldnt have had a bloody clue if it was a mixed pack or not half the time. I dont have a clue either half the time unless i cut it myself, and I see the stuff regularly.

ignoring flowers and fruits and just looking at boards I can pick Silkwood Maple from Qld Maple if they're growing together by colouration. But good luck with picking which is which if the Silkwood has grown at Milla Milla on the tablelands basalts and the Maple has come from the Mt Fox granites. The maple is likely the redder of the two.
I can pick Dirran from maple ex that region by smell. Once the fresh sawn smell goes ... again, good luck with that.

Theres quite a few Flindersias and a lot of them are very similar with only minor botanical differences. They identified a "new" one a couple years back - cant think of its name but it only grows above a certain altitude which basicly limits it to the tops of Mts Bartle Frere, Bellenden Ker, and Warrabullen - everyone had been walking past it for years saying "maple" and some taxonomical genetic difference was identified in a lab. So now its a separate species.

At least since my dads time QMP and MSW have been somewhat interchangeable in a pack going south, because if the colours the same they're the same. Most of the QMP available in the south now is actually MSW sourced ex New Guinea.

Not my place to call the practice right or wrong because I didnt start it. But the reality is that trade names for groups of similar species has been established practice in the industry for a long long time.

Thanks John ,
Very interesting information about the Maple .
Rob

Originally Posted by ian

I know it will be bit of work, but can you post some pics of each sample along with its description / common name?

I gave the box back a few years ago Ian . When I go back to the house where it lives I can take pictures of them . Maybe 5 at a time in their order from 1 to 42 and any one wanting to compare can do that to the number on the list under the lid . It may be six months to a year . I will take my camera when I go though .
Rob

I like the latch.

Mitred rebate joints too. Nice.

Here is some end grain pictures . Some are a little fuzzy and out of focus. That's the best of them I have.

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Wow, that's awesome. I'd love to get my hands on it!

My knowledge is limited, but I do appreciate some Maple. It's always been my understanding that the golden, often chatoyant Maple has always been considered to be the higher quality end of the F. brayleyana spectrum. From memory, it's what most of the maple furniture I saw in antique stores was made from, and I remember seeing a few Rosenstengel pieces (and one reproduction) which used a maple of that color. I always considered the golden colored maple to be along the same lines as the really dark, dense cedar that's so hard to get.

But, again, my knowledge is limited.

Awesome box!

Cheers,
Luke

The legend is really interesting.

I notice they chose G. robusta instead of C. sublimis as their Silky Oak sample.

They also refer to Crow's Ash, Flindersia australis, as simply "Teak". I've only heard the reference to Australian Teak once or twice before. Most woodies just know it as Crow's Ash or even just Ash, in my experience. I wonder if Teak was a more commonly used name at one time?

Oh John, if only that were true, how much less hazardous my job selling to NSWGR would have been. The chief purchasing officer was an old timber man hand picked and head hunted for the job. He knew his stick. At the slightest suspicion on his part that things may not be as they should, it was off to the laboratories with samples and an identification sought. He was hard ...real hard.
You can imagine the dilemma; on one hand you have the mill supplying what they think is acceptable and the receiver wont have a bar of it. And good old Muggins stuck in the middle.
It wasn't only the Railway, other major purchasers wouldn't have a bar of it either.
The industry has been far more accepting of mixed specie in recent years and, to some extent, its a necessity in the interest of keeping supply in a diminishing resource.
Nonetheless, when a specific specie is requested or specified it is not the place of the miller to make the judgement. And weather the Industry deems it satisfactory or not is also a matter for debate. Often, there is a damn good reason for specificity.
It isn't only our industry. Many others are being subjected to substitution. But the one common denominator is a degradation in product quality.
It used to be nice going to work knowing you were capable of supplying the best quality product out there. It sure makes a difference how you market and to who.