Help with small log identification please

[mitzee]

Hello all,

I was lucky enough to have a mate drop off a small log the other day, he told me it is from an old wattle tree which had died standing years ago.

Have started to mill it (difficult without a bandsaw) and the grain is beautiful, I have never seen wattle before.

Hoping somebody might be able to confirm this is wattle or not.

[AlexS]

No expert here, but it may well be. Some of the acacias have quite vivid colour like that.

[mitzee]

Hi Alex,

I have no reason to doubt that it is wattle but from a quick google search it would appear there are quite a few different types. There doesn't appear to be much info on the timber for anything other than small book ends, salt and pepper shakers etc. I am wondering if it is any good in terms of glueing, stability for maybe making something like a small side table.

Regards
Bart

[AlexS]

Well, blackwood is an acacia and it's certainly used for furniture. It's the only one I know that is, but if you have big enough pieces of some other sort it's probably worth trying, especially with colours like that. There shouldn't be any trouble glueing, especially if you give it a wipe with acetone first. Stability? Who knows.

[mitzee]

Thanks for the info Alex,

You mentioned using acetone before glue up as a precaution. This is not something i was aware of until a few days ago when i saw it mentioned on another post referring to spotted gum. I recently built a small desk using spotted gum and just glued all of the m&t joints without any prior cleaning, hopefully it stays in one piece.

Still thinking of what I can make out of the piece of wattle and secretly hoping my mate finds another log to drop off.

Regard
Bart