liquid amber uses?

[charlsie]

cleaning out the shed today and come across some liquid amber slabs. i put them up for sale but i still have no idea what it's good for.has anyone used it before? it has a lot of spalting in it ,seems to finish ok but i've never heard of anyone using it either as a hobbyist or comercially, i'm just interested if anyone has used it or could explain why?
regards charlsie

[mongrell]

hey charlsie, i got some at an auction some years ago and have been using it for intarsia as the stuff i got was very strait and even and pale in colour . sands, planes well and is easy to use . seems very stable .is also good as a contrast timber in furniture and boxes

[weisyboy]

its really good for turning. looks great. probly good for lots of things?

spalts easily to

[bluegum30]

don't know anything about the wood type ,but the liquid amber in the cans and bottles is ok to work with.

[charlsie]

bluey, i'm with you,the stuff in bottles is pretty good. mongrel & carl, it does seem a nice workable timber. i've never seen a crappy one. they all have a nice straight trunk and if in the right position would grow fairly tall and produce a good saw log ,so properly managed you'd think they'd be a comercial tree,but i just haven't heard of it. unless it's sold under a different name. like tassie oak is

[Andy Mac]

I was thumbing through an older UK woodwork mag this morning and found a timber profile on "Red gum", commonly sold under that name in USA, and is also known as liquid amber! Used widely for crates, furniture and plywood manufacture. Glues and nails well, not suitable for steam bending, are attributes I remember from the article.

Cheers

[charlsie]

andy, the bloke who bought it (monoman) was right up on it.he's going to veneer it.after listening to him for a few minutes explaining where it comes from and its uses,i was fairly impressed.monoman if you read this post could you put down in print what you told me,purely for the reason it's quite interesting,and i haven't seen any other posts dealing with this particular type of timber .

[glenn k]

I tried to find a structural grading on it years ago because it is so easy to come across but couldn't. I heard some one used it for axe handels. It is the worst fire wood I have ever tried to burn.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Is liquid amber any good?

[charlsie]

thanks skew, pretty much that link says it all