Thread: Hardwood Sought for Members to Make Wooden Planes

This is looking Good

With a piece 60 x 60 x 400 mm Curly Sugar Gum is going for a little as $12 from bushworker. Then a similar sized piece of red/grey ironbark would be even cheaper.

The Cooktown Ironwood from Ironwood seems to be a good deal in the making if enough people get in on it. Looks Like Dj's Timber, Groggy, and m2c1Iw are in. I am sure a good price can be agreed.

I have gotten a contact that is suppling me some nice but a mystery parcel of timbers, cannot wait to see what I am getting. I will fill out the rest of my needs with bushworker. I all ready have some Cooktown Ironwood so I will not be getting in on that deal.

Would be into some of the bull oak however.

Originally Posted by Frank&Earnest

I would be happy to have it resawn to make a lot of people happy.

Frank,
It would make one bloke I know very happy.

What size would you resaw to maybe possible to get 3 sections from each that would be OK for planes

I was thinking about 450 give or take for a Trying plane but only have 2 x 200mm pieces of Gidgee that might interest you ina swap perhaps we could explore.

BTW TS great idea again, this Forum is great.

Cheers Mike

Alrighty,

Out back of the joint there's a massive pile of old construction timber, fully dry. 90mm x 45mm (approx). There are 2? different types there, one is dark redish/browney, might be ironbark, Syd Blue Gum, Spotty. All I know is that it's definetely harder than my (&^% $20 turning chisel set. (I'm made a mallet, baseball bat and drumsticks outta it, that's how hard it is)

And the other timber is lighter, Might be Stringybark, Messmate, Vic Ash? Also hard.
I also have some odds and sods lying around that may be suitable. Some 4x3 (I think)


Now at work we have plenny of timber; Ironbark, Blue Gum, Brush Box, Spotty, Stringy, Blue Gum, Messmate, Blackbutt, Red Gum, Forest Red Gum.
Only problem being is that I don't think it's dry. Some might be...I'll have to ask the boss.

I'll do a swap, timber for a 150mm long blade.


Funky C

Funky thank you for posting, regrettable you would almost have to give those timbers away in this thread, because of everything else that is on the table at the moment. Since we have the likes of Cooktown Ironwood, Gidgee, Dead Finish, Rose Sheoak, Belah, Rosewood, Silver Needlewood, Yellow Mallee, Sugar Gum, Mallee root and burl, Bull Oak amongst others, going cheap.

Also 90 x 45 would be way to small even for the smallest blade, 60 x 60 dressed would be the real minimum size.

The only one in the list worth anything is the Ironbark and even then I would only use grey not red ironbark. The Syd Blue Gum and Spotty maybe of a very cheap interest. Regrettable the Stringybark, Messmate, Vic Ash, Brush Box is not suitable at all.

USA here, I have a piece of Dogwood (<!-- #BeginEditable "Botanical%20name:" -->Cornus sericea) 24" long 12" in dia, this was a standing dead tree that was cut about 14 years ago. I have been saving for hand plane projects, if you are willing to pay postage/handling/customs??? I will be happy and able to cut into slabs/chunks..
let me know..

Originally Posted by Groggy

I'd be keen on some red oak to try my hand at a Japanese plane. Will need to check size needs first though.

No worries, just let me know what you're after.

Originally Posted by m2c1Iw

Frank,
It would make one bloke I know very happy.

What size would you resaw to maybe possible to get 3 sections from each that would be OK for planes

I was thinking about 450 give or take for a Trying plane but only have 2 x 200mm pieces of Gidgee that might interest you ina swap perhaps we could explore.

BTW TS great idea again, this Forum is great.

Cheers Mike

Hi Mike.
All I cold gather from this thread is that:
-TS thinks that red ironbark is worth about $7 a kilo but is not really suitable for planes.
- no suggestion have come out about other best uses.
-you are the only one interested in red IB.

My 2 sleepers are currently joined with 1" dowels to make an outdoors "bench". Resawing them would mean that I cut away the dowel holes (after making a substitute bench). If you are still interested PM me, but really I was prepared to cut in a lot of pieces of the sizes mentioned only to spread a bit of joy around... Happy new year!

Hi Frank,
don't cut the bench apart, thanks.

I'll join in on the Ironwood buy, should be lots of planes to look at in the coming months.

Cheers Mike

Originally Posted by thumbsucker

Grey or Red? Have you got photos and in what sizes, and what do you want for them?

Its is grey ironbark. It is the posts from a shed that was errected in 1951. Posts are about 350mm dia. and very dry hard and heavy. If anyone is interested just let me know as I can cut them into slabs. Also have access to fallen ironbark trees at the back paddock. In Toogoolawah.
75mm slab is ok for planes? Damien.

Hi Guys,
sorry if I appear to be lagging a bit . My work is pretty demanding, timewise. And to top it off this computer is playing up like a 2 bob watch, just took me 15 minutes to connect to the internet, I've got satellite broadband, but you'd think it was dialup at the moment.

Hopefully I'll get some blanks cut up on the weekend and post some pics. I'll be pretty generous with the sizes to allow enough to be cut off the side for wedges etc.
Unless someone is unable to cut to size themselves and needs blanks at the correct dimensions (then I'll put extra bits in for wedges etc)

I seem to remember One slab I have which is about 70mm thick which I already have taken a piece off the side, from memory it was a fairly plain log (grain and figure wise) but the timber was very dense (even to Ironwood standards) I'll try to find it on Sunday.
If anyone is interested I'll throw in some 32mm bits suitable for rebate or shoulder planes very cheap, if bought with the other blanks.

Anyway hope to have some pics and work out some prices on Sunday,
Cheers Ironwood.

Is Kwila any good? I have a piece of decent size that I could part with.


And 4x2 could be used for Japanese Planes.

Originally Posted by funkychicken

Is Kwila any good?

My first plane shaping prototype was made from Kwila, the resin from it drove me mad however it was soft and easy to work. Kwila was OK for the body (but I doubt it would last very long as a working plane) however the wedge was beyond useless, because it was so soft, or open grained it just deformed and never held the blade securely under pressure. I replaced the Kwila wedge with a Vic ash prototype wedge which worked better.

The best choice from your selection is still the ironbark, Syd Blue Gum, or Spotty.

I have Rosewood in the following sizes (mm):

535 x 70 x 10= $15
730 x 840 x 10 = $18
600 x 60 x 60 = $60
1000 x 100 x 35 = $85
1000 x 100 x 25 = $75
800 x 100 x 35 = $65
800 x 100 x 25 = $55
380 x 50 x 11 = $5
410 x 36 x 15 = $6
230 x 36 x 15 = $3

Please let me know if you are interested
Have a nice weekend

Originally Posted by indianrosewood

I have Rosewood in the following sizes (mm):

535 x 70 x 10= $15
730 x 840 x 10 = $18
600 x 60 x 60 = $60
1000 x 100 x 35 = $85
1000 x 100 x 25 = $75
800 x 100 x 35 = $65
800 x 100 x 25 = $55
380 x 50 x 11 = $5
410 x 36 x 15 = $6
230 x 36 x 15 = $3

Please let me know if you are interested
Have a nice weekend

I'd like to reserve the 600x60x60. But before I buy I would like to know what cracking it has in it and is it possible to see a couple pics of the grain and end grain.