Thread: Seasoned Bull Oak trees potentially available for wood turners or carvers.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Definite for me, the first bark photo looked too thin, but you later one is good and thick. Seed pods are the give away.

Now to cut and sell some

Id like some

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

Yeah, I'll put my hand up for some too.

There is plenty of it at varying stages of growth. I bought back a few of the seasoned off cuts (little logs) as samples for now. They'll be at my place in Brassall near Ipswich. I haven't checked out the eastern border of the forest yet so that will be the next job.

It'll be a matter of who wants what and how we can help each other out.

Gleno

You probably have an interesting resource there as Bull Oak is a very attractive species for small projects. The issues surrounding it include drying as it splits and cracks readily rendering it not exactly useless but difficult to get useable sizes.

I think for it to become a proposition for you, some co-ordination would be neccessary between cutting it and making it available. It really needs to be "dealt with" immediately if the timber is not to degrade.

For example another Forum member and I salvaged a ute load of Bull Oak and Hairy Oak that had been down for a while. Out of the load the other Forum member (whom we shall call Ian for privacy) only managed five or six pieces suitable to make a saw handle. Everything else was defective and only suitable for pen blanks and knife scales A little disappointing, particularly as it is such a dramatic looking timber.

A second issue is what quantities you wished to sell it in: Ten pen blanks at a time or 1/2 M3?

You may have to outline what you had in mind.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Gleno

For example another Forum member and I salvaged a ute load of Bull Oak and Hairy Oak that had been down for a while. Out of the load the other Forum member (whom we shall call Ian for privacy) only managed five or six pieces suitable to make a saw handle. Everything else was defective and only suitable for pen blanks and knife scales A little disappointing, particularly as it is such a dramatic looking timber.

I agree with that. So dense and so much cracking.

I made a rocking chair out of it once. I never saw the timber I used for it in tree form, so not sure of its identity, but from whats been described I'm pretty sure its the same stuff or very similar. Forrest oak I called it. And no I didn't do a prick thing dropping a tree loaded with black cockatoo nests or nuts, in the middle of the night.

I'd be reluctant to do it again, because of the effort to find good timber between the cracks was just over the top. Especially since investigory like cuts were such an effort with such a hard tree. Spring with such a hard timber on the table saw is very taxing on a machine.

And It moved so much. What I ended up with was quite stable I thought. The seat had to be cut down gradually and kilned in betweened cuts, watching movement of glue lines until it stopped over a wet period.

Its an ok steam bender. Not really good enough if your into that sort of work. Spokeshaves don't work well on it. You have to make/buy a high angle speciality shave for it, or else the tear is too hard too govern.

But, if your willing to risk the stigma of filling small gaps, you can get a lot more out of it for larger pieces. You can actually fill gaps quite successfully in a ruff way well, that ends up looking nice, because the grain is so busy and wild it blends so quickly. eg. Shavings of the same wood grain pushed into cracks with CA. imo, Done well, filled cracks in this case looks better than no cracks at all, but I'm not supposed to prefer that.

Also, again because of the wild grain many thin glue ups look better than other thin timber glue ups…ie. only getting thin boards out of the tree are still usable. imo.

Also small box makers would love it. jewellery boxes etc.

Thanks for the information. At this stage, with what is readily available I imagine a fair bit of it wouldn't be that crash hot for lathe work due to some of the splitting, but for anything else that you can work around the split for or even things like drink coasters, book ends, table ware nik naks, probably even jewellery boxes or clocks it could be ideal, so think slabbing or cross cuts, and using as much of the tree as possible. if you wanted to use sticks or branches, maybe items for reptile habitats, fish tanks, bases for side tables or hiking sticks, it really is up to your own imagination and what works for you.

The samples I brought back last weekend are from the laying down tree and log in the photos. Pieces of log around 60-70cm long and between 4"-6" in diameter (approx). If you want to view the samples and you live in S.E.Q. or you want to come out to the property to view the extent of what is available just message me.

Cheers.

Hi Gleno,

I'm primarily interested in tool handles. For a bench chisel the ideal size is ~40mm squared x 160 long, so that's easy to work around cracks with. For plane knobs it's a similar story, but for plane handles it gets touch. Either way, I would possibly be interested in some short logs of the stuff, as long as I could get them through my band saw.

How long has the wood been down? Are we talking green wood? seasoning for a few months? or seasoning for a couple of years? Or...?

Cheers,
Luke

Band saw would be perfect. What is in the photos is (some of) what is ready to go, already seasoned. There is live stuff, young stuff, bent stuff, straight stuff and other that is just thieving carbon dioxide. There is productive Buloke standing in the way of me dropping a massive Ironbark, so if the Buloke isn't picked for what it is worth then the Ironbark will smash it into splinters.

When it comes to my water security, there is an 800 metre fence line not far off being turned into a dam system. If the Buloke isn't picked and plucked for everything it is worth it will bulldozed and burnt. The next seasoned Buloke that I drop, can either go to the wood working community, or be sold as firewood or burnt for my own personal survival.

Like most Casuarinas, the best way to dry this stuff is standing dead, it is just a race with nature (rot & bugs) as to whether dries before disappearing. If cut down, it is best to cut it as small as needed, then kiln dry it. Alternatively let it crack then cut useful wood between cracks or use resins to fill cracks.

If someone offers me some, or if I'm passing area, I'd grab it just so I had some of it. But to be honest, Hairy Oak or Rose Sheoak, have far better grain and sand/polish just as well and more readily available.

Originally Posted by JDarvall

......I made a rocking chair out of it once. I never saw the timber I used for it in tree form, so not sure of its identity, but from whats been described I'm pretty sure its the same stuff or very similar. Forrest oak I called it.....

And from the pic, Jake, 'Forest oak' it is most likely to be (A. torulosa), also called 'Rose she-oak'. I would never go to court on the strength of a photo, but your chair (which looks like another fine piece of work!) has the colour of A. torulosa, and even some fiddleback pattern, which I've not seen in any of the other casaurinas I've had my hands on, but of course that doesn't mean they never show it. If the wood came from anywhere east of the divide, then my confidence of its id goes up another notch.

Indeed forest oak is tough stuff, but I love it - a great wood for small items like saw handles, etc. In my experience, it's pretty stable once you get the MC down round ambient levels, but you need to coax it there very slowly. Bull oak or Buloke (A. leuhmanii) is actually tougher & denser than forest oak, if you'll believe it. In fact, it's reputed to be the hardest wood on earth, on the Janka scale.

I agree those flat fruits nail the trees in question as A. leuhmanii. The other casaurina with prominent medullary rays in your neck of the woods is hairy oak (A. inophloia), and you can't miss that one if there's any bark left on it. There's bound to be some Belah (A. cristata) within a cut-lunch distance of you, too, you can't be too far from some brigalow country. But it's an easy one to pick from the bunch, unlike every other casaurina I've seen, it has no visible medullary rays.

Can't really add anything to what Bushmiller said - I do like buloke, it's actually not bad to work with for small items - takes a beautiful finish, turns quite well (makes wonderful pepper grinders, amongst other things, IF you can find a defect-free piece large enough!).
I think you'll be lucky if those standing dead trees have sound pieces larger than 40mm square in them. It might save you endless frustration to just warm your winter hearth with them (it's an excellent, clean-burning fuel that cranks out prodigious numbers of BTUs.) I notice large areas of decay, too, on some cut ends (it's not a durable wood if exposed). Even pieces that look ok can have deep, fine cracks that cause your carefully-selected piece to fly to bits when you apply a roughing gouge (DAMHIK!). Your best bet for getting larger bits of sound wood is to slice it up while it's green, seal the ends immediately, and dry very carefully, over a looong time. I've managed to dry several pieces large enough to make 2" bench screws (i.e. starting out at about 75mm square). One of them is still operating happily a good 20 years after it was installed on a friend's tail vise...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

And from the pic, Jake, 'Forest oak' it is most likely to be (A. torulosa), also called 'Rose she-oak'. I would never go to court on the strength of a photo, but your chair (which looks like another fine piece of work!) has the colour of A. torulosa, and even some fiddleback pattern, which I've not seen in any of the other casaurinas I've had my hands on, but of course that doesn't mean they never show it. If the wood came from anywhere east of the divide, then my confidence of its id goes up another notch.

Indeed forest oak is tough stuff, but I love it - a great wood for small items like saw handles, etc. In my experience, it's pretty stable once you get the MC down round ambient levels, but you need to coax it there very slowly. Bull oak or Buloke (A. leuhmanii) is actually tougher & denser than forest oak, if you'll believe it. In fact, it's reputed to be the hardest wood on earth, on the Janka scale.

It came from Bonalbo. Not far west of Lismore/casino.

The 3 piece seat glue up was the trickiest. It was from a fairy big tree too. Started with near 60mm rough sawn…then…dressed to about 50 for gapless dry fit. Let it sit a month or so. Watched the glue line move after it down for a while…..dry fit glue lines gapped up…..jointed again for gapless dry fit…..sat again in sun…..moved again….Then Kilned it at 50C overnight…..that pulled the ends up the most….rejointed…sat for another month….. down again for about a week…etc .etc...week of dry weather after the joints stopped moving so I bit my lip and glued up. Ended up with a glued up blank about 45mm thick, and width reduced from what I was hoping from all the rejoining.

Your best bet for getting larger bits of sound wood is to slice it up while it's green, seal the ends immediately, and dry very carefully, over a looong time. I've managed to dry several pieces large enough to make 2" bench screws (i.e. starting out at about 75mm square). One of them is still operating happily a good 20 years after it was installed on a friend's tail vise...

I'd agree with that over letting it dry dead standing….not saying Neils wrong….just saying……I reakon just stack it in the shade. It moves so much, so I wouldn't put much effort it stacking it perfectly. imo, Best to let it do what it wants as much as possible rather than force it. Just see that as causing some kind of stress crack.

Must expect a lot of movement, waste and head scratching latter. A timber for those who like solving puzzles imo.

I'm not sure I'll ever work it again because, apparently, in using the tree, I contributed to Black cockatoo death, even though I know the tree was responsibly taken. I was told I contributed to black cockatoo death by one angry bloke I'd never met, who just hit me with it out of the blue (its always out of the blue), 2 seconds before he turned his back to me and stood their like a d*******. But then I guess theres so many definitions of d****** I suppose. But I reakon he'd have a really cool tattoo on his chest. Black cockatoo warrior.

Anyway I reakon, there's something definitely superstitious about those birds if your that way inclined. Hate to see them go extinct. See how they fly? Float along as if gravity doesnt apply to them. As though, they don't really need to flap their wings to fly. Just doing it because they feel it look stupid if they didn't do some flapping…. either that or their being puppeteered by something in the clouds. Invisible puppeteer strings(fishing line probably) from something almighty. Their screeches make them look even more powerfully spiritual as if they are warning the world to not mess with them…….

So, I reakon, to take the tree, not only should you ensure the tree's not producing any nuts, and nearly dead, and/or already fallen over by some natural event, and/or about to wipe out say a house, but before you start up any chainsaw or mill, you should get down on one knee, place a hand on the trunk and say something sincere sounding like…...

' thank you tree lord for letting me take this tree in an attempt to make things out of it…… I will use its timber wisely even though it really is too tricky to get anything decent out of it it. '

Never know, if you don't tick all the boxes. Especially the prayer. He might send the black cockatoos after you. Wake up one morning with a black cockatoo perched at the end of your bed foaming at his beak. Might be the last thing you ever see.

Black Cockies is getting a bit off-topic, but just for the record, I think you can sleep easy, Jake. People like your accuser are generally driven more by passion than logic, so it would've been a waste of time to point out that harvesting a few trees is hardly going to cause a population crash - the issues are a little more complex than that! For starters, A. torulosa is a 'pioneer species' that only germinates in clear ground, so you were more likely helping to ensure continuity of food supply. There's also a fair chance you picked on a male tree, anyway (She-oaks are one of those boy/girl type plants), so it's a good bet, no cockatoos suffered in the making of your chair!

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

.... There's also a fair chance you picked on a male tree, anyway (She-oaks are one of those boy/girl type plants), so it's a good bet, no cockatoos suffered in the making of your chair!

…. well thats not entirely true.

I had to get rid of a few of them. It was the only way I could get to the tree.

For years I wanted this massive tree on a hill, and one day I decided,,,,bugger it, time to get that timber drying. So I waited for Anzac day, when everyone was in town, and climbed that hill with my chainsaw. Looked up, and it was full of these bloody birds. As soon as they saw me, they started dive bombing me. The bastards !!!….. so I drove home got my gun….drove back…and gave it to them. Hey, its not my fault, They started it !

Finally dropped the tree. It was tricky. Kept loosing my footing on all the nuts and dead birds…..And guess what !….the barrel was hollow !…… … after all that effort.

Then a off leprechaun crawled out of the hollow….

Originally Posted by JDarvall

…. well thats not entirely true.

I had to get rid of a few of them. It was the only way I could get to the tree.

For years I wanted this massive tree on a hill, and one day I decided,,,,bugger it, time to get that timber drying. So I waited for Anzac day, when everyone was in town, and climbed that hill with my chainsaw. Looked up, and it was full of these bloody birds. As soon as they saw me, they started dive bombing me. The bastards !!!….. so I drove home got my gun….drove back…and gave it to them. Hey, its not my fault, They started it !

Finally dropped the tree. It was tricky. Kept loosing my footing on all the nuts and dead birds…..And guess what !….the barrel was hollow !…… … after all that effort.

Then a off leprechaun crawled out of the hollow….

. Where's the tongue in cheek smiley when you want it?

Regards
Paul