Thread: Recycling Jarrah

Roof timbers in old house's would more likely be Oregan, karri and jarrah would make for a very heavy roof if using corro, would you need on a tiled roof for strength?
I got some karri in the shed(well so I've be told)it seems harder and a lot heavier?(and a more brown colour)

Done some more investigation about the use of Karri apparently milled green has a F17 rating for strength ... dried it's up near F35 (same as mild steel).
Went to a mill today where they were milling Jarrah, Karri and Marri and had a close up look at the differences between Karri and Jarrah. Nearly all the Jarrah was pale (and it came from many coupes) and the Karri was also a pinky colour. The main difference was when side by side the Karri had a bit of a honey colour thrown in ... viewed apart I'd still have trouble differentiating when newly cut ... one thing though Karri is generally found in much longer lengths and is almost exclusively used for flooring and long structural members, it sells cheaper than Jarrah and is more difficult to work.
I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow of Karri and Jarrah side by side.

Jarrah and karri are often mistaken for each other, however Jarrah comes in varrious shades depending on its age and location. Young trees lean towards being a salmon colour, and getting darker as they age. Karri has a long splintery grain and does have a light brown colour to it.

An old boy told me sometime ago that their is a simple way of telling the difference between Jarrah and Karri and that is: break a small piece off and set light to it. How they burn and the ash they leave indicates which it is. I cannot remember the detail and haven't any to try. Has anyone else come across this?

Heard the ash one . Most houses in WA were jarrah (my old man was a roofy ) 80's onwards karri took over and now its radiata. Some of the stories my old man can tell about wastage of jarrah , make you cry . I find that to me karri looks orange compared to jarrah . Having said that you can dress a dozen lengths of jarrah and the color variation is amazing . I find it hard to tell at times but are pretty confident once i dress it . The smell when cutting is differant too .

Jarrah goes black and Karri goes grey. It was my first lesson in WA timbers when i first moved their. I bought a heap of Jarrah and made a cabinet only for it to warp, twist and srink within a week:eek: It was then pointed out i got Karri