Thread: Timber ID ? Is it King Billy ?????

If it smells like Huon Pine, thats what it is , otherwise it Celery Top Pine. Not King Billy. NF.

Yeah. It looks like Celery Top Pine to me.

Cheers

I know you cannot tell from photos but I have some celery top and it seems lighter both in weight and colour and is much softer ( less hard )
also the rot on the ends

If it were to help I can take photos of it beside the celery top I have

What about the smell? Certainly looks like very old huon pine.

No ,the distinct huon smell is not there when sanded

If anyone knows of someone on Gold Coast who can identify it I will take it for a drive

No smell no Huon

yvan

I will add a couple more photos of the bark and of some rot on end P4197210.jpgP4197214.jpg

Here are photos of the other piece
Same species or different ?

P4197222.jpgP4197224.jpg

Anything to rule out Kauri?

I'd have said the first piece was bull kauri, Agathis robusta, or perhaps Vanikoro kauri , A. macrophylla....but the other piece looks more like NZ kauri (can't recall the species name )

Thanks I certainly had not looked at that possibility

makes me even more keen to find out for sure

Here's something to consider. Bootle's "Wood in Australia" lists Celery Pine as 1050kg/m3 green and 650kg/m3 dry. Huon is 960kg/m3 green and 520kg/m3 dry and I have never come across any that didn't have that characteristic smell, no matter how old and dry it was.
King Billy is much lighter at 620kg/m3 green and 400kg/m3 dry. That is actually lighter than common old Radiata Pine and it is softer too. Common Victorian radiata is around 3.3 on the Jenka scale and King Billy is only 2. I don't have a listing for the hardness of Huon but Celery Pine is 4.5.
The growth rings in your pics are wider than I would expect to see in a piece of celery or Huon. I think I have a slab of King Billy in the shed so I'll sand a bit back and get a pic for comparison on the weekend.

Greg.

Hi Snapper, I have used Huon for the last 11/12 years including a number of pieces just like yours and my bet is on Huon. Regarding the hardness I have found that Huon varies a great deal, I do Chip Carving and have had some that is very soft and have had other pieces that I have not ben able to get a knife into. Cheers Brian.

I think I'll just put it my 5 cents. I reckon it's Huon. As soon as I looked at the picks it said "I'm huon!"

Originally Posted by John.G

Anything to rule out Kauri?

I'd have said the first piece was bull kauri, Agathis robusta, or perhaps Vanikoro kauri , A. macrophylla....but the other piece looks more like NZ kauri (can't recall the species name )

Agathis australis - is NZ Kauri - I know because Aust customs gave me the grill when I came back from NZ with some in 2012 & 2014. Could be NZ Macrocarpa - it has similar properties to the image.