Thread: Paulownia

Its suposed to be a nice wood to work as it has straight grain with very few knots, is light in weight(for a hardwood)and is harder than most softwoods.
It is a very plain wood with very few features, which is why most think of it as a secondary type wood... which it has perfect properties for.

I am pretty sure that boat builders are right into it. There was someone in the east that said they had some what is it good for and most of the eastern seaboard chimed in that it is dangerous and evil rubbish that you should get rid of immediately and by the way I'll be glad to get rid of it for you.

Studley

My goodness, at times you young pups are talking timber that I've never heard off . Paulownia ? Is there a link/site that I can do a bit of homework on timbers

Attie,
There are plenty of sites, not all of them useful!

Paulownia is also sold under the trade name Kiri here, which some will tell you is "old growth", but the bits I have aren't!

It's a pretty bland looking thing, ranging from white to almost honey in colour.

It's somewhere between Balsa and Western Red Cedar in density, is a little more brittle than WRC, easy to carve and work, is straight grained, and has been used for centuries for furniture, blinds, mouldings and general building in China, mostly coated with a heavy coat of lacquer.

The last lot I bought, I got from http://www.cwcpanels.com.au in Brisbane.

Cheers,

P

Want to know about Paulownia. Go here.

http://www.paulowniatrees.com.au/english.htm

I wrote about this a short while ago on another forum:

http://denali.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu:...read=1#message

Regards from Perth

Derek

Its supposed to be OK for tax deductions as well...

I forgot to mention that they are fast growing!

Nice story Derek! I know it's used to make furniture, but I don't trust it for legs I'm afraid... it's a bit "light" for that, but I have sat on them in other people's places.

I've got a couple of paddles underway laminated with a bit of oregon, will post a thread when I'm far enough advanced.

Cheers,

P

A little follow up on my linked post.

I sliced up a few sections into small boards. It dried amazingly quickly - not enough to use, but enough to become aware just how light this timber is. It is like Balsa!

I think it will be used for boxes, but not much else.

Anyone in Perth want a log, just PM me.

Regards from Perth

Derek

aparantly it is a wonder timber
I have a supplier that has plywood with this stuff as the core, it is half the weight of luan. quite rigid too.
cheers

Yeah anyway a woman at work has a quite a few of them she wants to get rid of. I guess the deal would be you remove them.

Probably lousy firewood as the Japanese use it for hibachi surrounds & incense burner bowls (with a copper lining).

IIRC - I'm not going reading thru my reference library right now, it was used for sea chests as it supposedly quickly swelled up quickly & made the case joints watertight when thrown overboard.

A lot of Japanese chests made with it have the timber cut so as to show a 'cathedral' grain pattern, often book matched, specially on sliding doors.

I have a stunning early 19th century Japanese Futon Cabinet here, made from it - it is fantastic - nice grain, colour and performance.

Aparantly one of its best features is that it air dries very effectively and is very well suited to low tech timber processing.
cheers