Thread: Dark timber SA tree identification

Could it be Blackwood? There are plenty of them around Adelaide and the hills.


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It looks like an Acacia for sure.

The bark looks like Melanoxylon but the heartwood is so much darker than any other I've seen.

Originally Posted by Gassy

The bark looks like Melanoxylon but the heartwood is so much darker than any other I've seen.

I'd say Blackwood. It can vary in darkness from a light brown to almost black depending on where it is grown plus the ends will go darker over time anyway. Cut some and see what it is on the inside

Originally Posted by Cal

Could it be Blackwood? There are plenty of them around Adelaide and the hills.


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Yes, I'd say Blackwood. It gets to be quite dark if it is growing in rich soil. But, in sandy soil it is a feeble brown.

Neil

Belah (Casuarina cristata) perhaps?
Although its bark looks wrong...

g'day everyone,
new person here,i have a couple of logs of this timber and remember the old fella who gave it to me called it PORT BROUGHTON WILLOW,there are a few growing in our suburb.the tree grows big with long branches that hang down like a willow it also has a silvery colour to it,don't know its real name

What about Weeping Myall (Acacia pendula)? Did it ooze a lot of blackish gum at the cut ends (a characteristic of freshly-cut A. pendula)?. Adelaide is at the western edge of its natural range, but I noticed quite a few around the place when I was down there a few years back.

It's a lovely tree with its silvery-green drooping foliage, & the wood can sometimes be nicely figured, but be prepared to sharpen any edge tools you use on it very often! Here are two W.M. marking gauges, the one on the right showing some nice fiddleback figure in the stock: Myall gauges.jpg

Cheers,

thanks ,finally i can put a name to this tree and yes it is hard on cutting edge,i gave up on trying to carve it,some nice figured slabs would make some nice knife handles

Originally Posted by useit

......some nice figured slabs would make some nice knife handles

Or a nice marking-gauge or two.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by useit

thanks ,finally i can put a name to this tree and yes it is hard on cutting edge,i gave up on trying to carve it,some nice figured slabs would make some nice knife handles

I can't help with what it is but I really don't think it's blackwood. I see heaps of the stuff all the time. It's bark is too thin and not chunky enough. I suppose it could be if it's a very young tree.
IMG_20170610_162403.jpg
Blackwood Grand Daddy 23-02-14 (1).jpg

My guess is that its weeping Myall, Acacia pendula, which I saw as mature speciments in road side / street trees growing to about 40 cm dia in and near suburb of Millswood. Did your log come from near there. They like Adelaide's heat and dry climate. It has a very dense, hard, dark almost black and very oily fragrant wood which many have described as being reminiscent of violets. Cheers Euge

The photo of the log back in post #1 shows relatively smooth bark compared to the typical bark on Weeping Myall

eg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_pendula

Second lot of photos has bark that is closer. The vanilla smell of freshly cut wood is an extra clue.

Anyway, definitely an Acacia.

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the logs i was given came from a huge old back yard tree in prospect an old suburb of adelaide ,there are a lot growing in the western suburbs as street trees