Thread: Blimmen Blackbutt

We've churned through a few tonnes of the stuff over the last year at work and we all agree with your dislike for it; it's a killer on tools, very splintery and the cracks can be a nightmare, although it's really luck of the draw board by board.

Oh yeah, it's also made of gravity

It's quite popular at the moment for cabinetry and builders/designers are speccing it for interior wall cladding because it has a very high fire rating. There's a 5m dining table on order at the moment (well, we talked them down to 4.9m so we can get it through the sander without having to move a bandsaw), not looking forward to that job...

Makes good firewood.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Oh yeah, it's also made of gravity ….. It's quite popular at the moment for cabinetry and builders/designers are speccing it for interior wall cladding because it has a very high fire rating....

Amazing how many people want stuff because nobody else has it. Often there is a very good reason why nobody else has it!

Bit like Cooktown Ironwood, I think its made of black holes. People want beefy dining tables etc from the stuff not realising that its going to weigh 400kg plus. Nasty stuff to get splinters from.

So I've just found out that we're about to clear out Victoria's Blackbutt stock for a big job coming up. Clearly someone likes the stuff

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

So I've just found out that we're about to clear out Victoria's Blackbutt stock for a big job coming up. Clearly someone likes the stuff

I'm glad that I got what I needed for a display case to go with a black butt hall table then. Urban Salvage had quite a bit a couple of weeks ago. I doubt that I will need to use it again.

Don`t know if the WA Blackbutt is similar to the eastern states one over here they seem to use it a lot for flooring, but a lot of the ones I`ve seen have root burls and they look pretty good when turned, these are two pepper grinders that Neil made up for me, the one on the left is the Blackbutt root burl with fiddleback the other Lace Sheoak. Jarrah and Blackbutt Pepper Grinders.jpg

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

So I've just found out that we're about to clear out Victoria's Blackbutt stock for a big job coming up. Clearly someone likes the stuff

wow! mind telling us where you work? where do you guys get your blackbutt from?

Timbersearch in Woodend and Urban Salvage in Spotswood have Blackbutt - check their websites

Another complaint about Blackbutt... it's almost always undersize. We order 150x38mm DAR, but they've set their moulder to 148x37mm and you still might get huge rough sawn patches so in some places you're down to 140x35 semi-rough sawn before you even start.

Yeah, i have also found it super harsh on edge tools. Despite not being officially as hard as some other natives it just seems to be very abrasive and chews up pm-v11 like it was mild steel. My carbide thicknesser blades hold up ok, as does the carbide band-saw blade and the carbide table saw blade...wait...i hear it...carbide haha. Better get some carbide hand plane blades and chisels

As already mentioned the checking can be severe and varies board to board or even top/bottom of a board.

Cheers, Dom

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

There's a 5m dining table on order at the moment (well, we talked them down to 4.9m so we can get it through the sander without having to move a bandsaw), not looking forward to that job...

IMAG3005.jpgIMAG3007.jpgIMAG3010.jpg

Kinda hard to capture the scale of it in photos. For a real world reference, it's as long as a VE Commodore x 1100 wide x 40 thick

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

IMAG3005.jpgIMAG3007.jpgIMAG3010.jpg

Kinda hard to capture the scale of it in photos. For a real world reference, it's as long as a VE Commodore x 1100 wide x 40 thick

What are you doing for a base? Some hairpin legs? joking of course.

The sad thing is you're actually not far off.

The bottom is recessed to fit a 3-piece steel frame with 30 or 35mm round legs, 3 at each end in a V arrangement, so you can sit, and 2 in the middle.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Kinda hard to capture the scale of it in photos. For a real world reference, it's as long as a VE Commodore x 1100 wide x 40 thick

Scale looks right, I can see 200kg of Blackwood just fine.