Thread: Kwilla

Kwila is a hard wood and is moisture resistant. I used to use it for door jambs when installing security doors.

Would be OK for Outdoor Furniture.

Would probaly make good furniture seems to pretty stable.

What sort of money

It finishes up very nicely - blends well with jarrah, very solid timber.

on the down side - it has a high tannin content which will turn your hands black when you're working on it, along with anything else it touches. For safety I leached the tannin before finishing to stop any risk of staining of clothes etc. obtained here

It also splits easily along the grain so digging 3 sided mortices was difficult as the long sides tended to break off as one end wasn't supported.
This also leads to the timber splintering easily and profusely.

If you bear these things in mind it is a good timber and you should have no problems.

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Kwila machines ok, but is a bit too cranky for handtools. Having said that, You can get a nice finish with hand planes and scrapers, but they really do have to be setup right. Quite stable and good thing as there's not much that would stop it if it wants to move..

It has a very high content of silica (from memory) and dulls blades very quickly. Reasonably oily and very dense timber and therefore needs an appropriate glue like epoxy. Very rot resistant, but bleeds brown when wet, so needs special treatment if outside. Leaves a lovely brown stain on concrete

I reckon it's a beautiful wood. Has a wonderful colour range. Certainly warrants use in furniture although it often ends up being used for structural framing. I've had joy using oil to finish, but it does have a very deep open grain..

Thanks, guys, I liked the look of it and cheap hardwood is hard to resist. On the price, I bought about 0.7 m<SUP>2</SUP> of Jarrah recently (rough sawn), mainly 50 x 200 type dimensions and it worked out at about $1,800 per m<SUP>3</SUP>, which I thought was very good. I have also bought some 19 x 190 Jarrah from a hardware place (should have got some 25 x 200 in the big lot) and it works out at more than $6,000 per m<SUP>3</SUP>, dressed. I am not that big a fan of other people’s dressing, so end up taking a mil or so off either side, trimming it up, making it very expensive timber. The Kwilla was half the price of the Jarrah, similar dimensions, dressed, so more expensive than undressed Jarrah bit less than dressed Jarrah. I did not get a lot of it, about 0.1 m<SUP>3</SUP>. DaveinOZ mentioned it splits easily. I can imagine that would make an open mortice risky but it would also seem to imply router work would be similarly affected. I use a Leigh dovetail jig and break out is my worst nightmare. Any comments, anyone?

As far as I am aware, Kwila is another name for Merbau.
Most commonly used as a decking timber but also good for otdoor furniture manufacture and window sills etc.
Sourced from New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, Fiji and other countries of South East Asia.

G'day.

I bleeds when wet & will stain.
The grain can have a white or yellow fleck in it that looks like it has old paint stuck in it.

I have found it very easy to work, I have turned it & have almost finished a very nice workbench out of it.

I'll be posting some photo's when it's finished fitting the vice.

Made an outdoor deck out of Kwila about 6 years ago, thought it looked OK so I picked out some better pieces and used them to make a stool and some other little things. The finished piece polished up pretty well, but I don't think I would use it again for good furniture ... but outdoor furniture, a workbench etc OK. I just don't think it is a very nice timber.

Squizcat says "Kwila machines ok, but is a bit too cranky for handtools." It is fairly brittle and wavy grain seems to be common and this can also affect machine tools. For example rounding over along the grain you'll commonly get small breakout. Possibly this would be a problem cutting dovetails. I'm sure I glued up the stool with regular PVA glue and after 5 years it hasn't failed so I don't think you'd be committing any major error by simply using PVA.

I'm about to make a couple of table tops for outdoor use and I will buy in some Jarrah even though I still have some Kwila in stock.

Ian R.