Thread: What glue for Tallowwood and Ironbark?

OH

I think you will find the latest, modern PVA glues will cope providing the timbers are not subjected to extreme stress. I used Titebond 3 for the office desk project below, which was Tallowwood and Forest Red Gum. It has held together for a couple of years now. I did not have enough FRG and used the Tallowwood for contrast and dividers for the three sections. The top was far too heavy for me to move into place as a single bench so I made it in three pieces.

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Some precautions to take are to glue up as soon as possible after planning or sanding. Some people also wipe the timber with a solvent too. I did not do that but I think it is worthwhile. I can't recall what they used off the top of my head, but perhaps somebody can chip in with their recommendations.

I did check Bootle's book "Wood in Australia" for some properties and no surprise that it identifies difficulty with gluing because of the presence of triterpenes: I had to look that up too, Triterpene - Wikipedia . Suffice to say it is not the easiest timber to glue. I would also suggest using the highest clamping pressure you can manage with the PVA type glues.

He also suggests wiping the timber with a 10% solution of sodium hydroxide before gluing, but as I mentioned above, I think there maybe other solutions today (Bootle first published his book around 1984).

I expect you are using Ironbark and Tallowwood because you have them, but you may have to accept they will be unforgiving towards your knives. Rough Barked Apple (Angophora floribunda) was the preferred timber for butcher's blocks. However, the contrasting timbers will look spectacular.

Regards
Paul

Well, that is a truly spectacular desk Bushmiller. I hope my cutting boards turn out half as nice as that! And yes, I am using what is available at the moment. We did some clearing back in 2017 and I stockpiled the Ironbarks, then dropped the Tallowwood so the RFS could get in without worrying about the mirrors on their tanker. Bought a baby Lucas mill when they were on clearance sale back in 2018 and only got it set up a couple of months ago so the plan is to use scraps from the milling process to make "stuff" that people might want to buy, hence the cutting board idea. The only problem with Australian Hardwood cutting boards is their weight. Perhaps I need to include a safety warning about not dropping the darn things on your toes?

I have glued plenty of Iron Bark and Tallowwood without a problem.

Titebond 3 and Epoxy both work well..

The suggestions for using fresh cut timber and wiping with turps are probably worthwhile safeguards but I am too lazy and time is a challenge for butcherblock cutting boards.

I used a good PVA to glue up an Ironbark chopping board many years ago. About 50cm x 30cm x4cm. It weighed a ton and no one would use it. It spent years in the shed or woodpile, generally poorly treated. The glue joints never gave up.

I think you will be fine.

There isn't much you can do about the weight but if it looks good, like yours should, anyone would be happy to give it pride of place in a kitchen.
My Purpleheart and Celery Top big board is very popular.

Thank you Scally, I have been watching things on "youtube" (which should be re-named S-bend in many cases) and wonder how they lift some of their cutting boards, then I realised that what they call "hardwood" isn't quite in the same street as some of the stuff we get to play with.
I was thinking of using this new "acrylic" foaming adhesive (which triggered memories of "Ajax, boom-boom, the foaming cleanser") but didn't know how it would react to the sap in the Tallowwood. And I don't know if it's "food safe", not that I can imagine anyone being able to cut much of it off to be able to eat the darn stuff!
Perhaps an experiment is in order in a week or two when some of the cut boards have dried a little and I can get into Creepy-cheap Auto for some thinners to wipe down the edges before gluing.

I have made at least a thousand cutting boards out of many different timbers and use Titebond 3 mainly because of its proven water resistance, I have never had one come apart.
You say you want to glue green timber, nothing will reliably glue green timber.

We used Timbatech polyurethane for pretty much everything at my old work, even left some samples in a bucket of water for a few weeks and they didn't fail.

Ay least Titebond, or st least Titebond 2 washes off with water which is better than the foaming stuff. But if it sticks to timber as well as it sticks to my fingers, that foaming glue should be great. I might give it a try on some Tallowwood.

The polyurethane “foaming” glue is good, I’ve seen timber sailboats built with it and sailed round Australia and the pacific with no problems.

If it wasn't so bloody hot out in the shed I would cut up some bits and do a trial run but I reckon the "open time" may well be too short to get much done. It's only 35.6 degrees C out there but that's a bit much for me.

I have not used either of the timbers mentioned above but have glued many panels of Jarrah and Blackwood with Titebond 3 after giving the edges of the boards a wipe over with acetone to be sure that they are clean and free of any oils. No failures yet.

I have had glue failures with Ironbark when using epoxy and using titebond and that was when it was dry.
I ended up using polyurethane glue with much more success.
Messy stuff though.

Regards

Pete

Thanks for the advice Pete. The Yanks seem to love Titebond 3 but I somehow doubt that their "hardwoods" are in the same class as things like Ironbark. I took note of the fact that they advise against using their Oak for cutting boards due to it's open grain structure. I don't think that will be a problem for most of the hardwoods here on the north coast of NSW. But yes, that Polyurethane glue is messy but at least the squeeze-out is easy to sand off when it's dry.