Thread: What are the difference between river and forrest redgum?

FRG is hard. Orange to dark red. Hard. Class 1 durability. Use it for framing, heavy construction, railway sleepers, flooring and decking. Can make a real nice floor.

Not really well regarded as a woodworking timber because of the density and hardness but it can have beautiful figure at times.

How about river red gum?


Bought redgum sleepers 2nd hand which were formally used as a retaining wall at a garden supply in melb store about 10 years ago to use for garden bed - any guess if it as river or forest?

Forrest Red is a tall straight logged tree. The River Red is usually much shorter in the trunk, with a tendency to be gnarly in the grain with considerable gum pockets.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

How about river red gum?


Bought redgum sleepers 2nd hand which were formally used as a retaining wall at a garden supply in melb store about 10 years ago to use for garden bed - any guess if it as river or forest?

Coming from Vic it is probably River Red.

If you get a chance check out my albums where you'll see some pics of Forest Red Gum
Furniture grade stuff of outstanding beauty
River Red Gum is very similar in appearance...MM

I just had a look mapleman they look great! I noticed the album's name is blue gum/forest red gum - are they the same timber? and is it the same as 'sydney blue gum'?

River Red Gum gets up and walks across the floor as as the weather goes from dry to wet, Forest Red Gum is much more stable. Don't make a table from River Red Gum unless the top is thick and heavy enough to hold the legs on the floor.

As others have said they look virtually identical timbers and it wouldn't surprise me if the only difference is that one is grown on dry land while the other is grown on a flood plain, which leads to the different timber and growing characteristics. Definitely not the same timber as Sydney Blue Gum, the trees are totally different.

Forest Red Gum is Eucalyptus teriticornis. It's commonly known as Blue Gum in Qld. It is the most widely dispersed of the commercial eucalyptus, growing right down the east coast from Laura to Gippsland

Sydney Blue Gum is Eucalyptus saligna.

River Red Gum is Eucalyptus camaldulensis.


Two of those three names I didnt even have to look up.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

I just had a look mapleman they look great! I noticed the album's name is blue gum/forest red gum - are they the same timber? and is it the same as 'sydney blue gum'?

Yes,as mentioned,the same timber.
Sydney Blue again different but it too is very pretty
Forest Red Gum when at its best has few peers in terms of appearance...and it is most suitable for furniture
The pics do look great...from a tree pushing 1500mm in width...it was a monster...MM

Minor digression...

...quite a few years ago I was commissioned to make an extra wide rocking chair for a visiting American pastor. His wife was expecting and he wanted her to be able to tend the bub while still having their youngest sitting beside her. To mitigate sibling envy, I think.

At the time I'd bought several River Red Gum sleepers for landscaping at a ridiculously cheap price (even given that they were neither sleeper sized nor kiln dried!) and thought I'd sacrifice one or two for a mockup. I had intended to use FRG with Vic Ash as a secondary timber for the final version.

I contacted the pastor to drop in for a consultation about potential changes... he took one look at the prototype, said "That's exactly what I want" and reached for his wallet. As I'd taken no particular care in the construction of the prototype and it was crafted from RRG I only charged him a fraction of the agreed price. About $200 from memory, purely for time invested.

I know from that experience that RRG moves around like a cut snake; the chair would be racked one way one day, t'other the next. They must've liked it though, as not only did they ship it back to the States with them, my brother - a friend of the couple - later told me that once they'd weaned the bub they'd sold the chair for $2.5k!!

I wonder if there there are many hidden gems at harden supply shops of 'redgum' being FRG. Is it easy to distinguish between the 2?

Both woods can vary from a deep, dark red to almost a pinkish orange, both have an open grain, neither is particularly stable, and both can have nice figuring in the radially sawn areas. In my experience it's not easy to distinguish until you start working them. While River Red is a fairly nice wood to work, and is similar to your Tas Oak/Mountain Ash species...

Blue Gum (FRG) is a truly horrific wood to work. I'd say it's the most difficult wood I've ever worked with, and that includes stuff like Gidgee and Inland Rosewood that you almost can't even plane. It's extremely heavy, it's very hard for a Eucalypt, it leaves a gummy, black residue on your hands and tools, and it tears out like nobody's business. Even on a helical head jointer with the grain it tears out. Getting it to an acceptable (notice I didn't say nice) finish requires considerable scraping and sanding. I also have found that it has a blunting effect on tools similar to something like Teak and (although I haven't had this experience) Queensland Walnut.

If you go to a dealer and they have "Red Gum" for sale, I would ask for verification of species and, if you can't get it, get the location from which it came. I think RRG is more common in NSW and FRG is more commonly from QLD, but others (Like JohnG) would have better perspective on that.

Cheers,
Luke