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View Full Version : BIG WA Banksia nut



Boris L
3rd May 2010, 02:34 PM
My first post. I have read this place quite a few times as google directes me here often and I usually find what I'm looking for. This time I decided to ask since I can't find the answer. The thread below is where google sent me. The thread is over 1,500 days old so I can't post a querstion on that thread.
http://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/ideas-banksia-nuts-21295/

However, any of you know where I can get these BIG WA banksia nuts in Sydney at a fair price I'd be very grateful for any direction.

I'm going to try and use them on a bamboo fly rod as a grip rather than using cork.

Cheers

Boris

Boris L
4th May 2010, 05:11 PM
To help you blokes visualise what I ahve in mind here's a pretty standard cork grip on my first bamboo rod.

136219
The cork rings are glued together and when dry turned on a lathe using a steel mandrel.
136218

Of course a nicely turned timber reel seat is attached to the end behind the grip. I've been using brown mallee & coolabah burl.

136216

136217

hughie
5th May 2010, 10:35 AM
Boris,

Good one, the biggest nuts I have heard of came from Stirlo in Newcastle he had em around 12" long.Hes not in turning any more but may have some contacts.


Just a word of caution on your lathe, try and stay away from any timber that has a high silica content other wise you will have bad wear on your bed and ruin the lathe for any reasonable work in metal later.
Perhaps if your able look around for a cheap wood lathe to do your rod parts

Boris L
5th May 2010, 11:37 AM
Thanks Hughie. What's the best way to contact Stirlo?

Thanks for the tip on silca and the lathe bed. I'll make sure it's cleaned up after each use.

For turning reel seat timber I find the accuracy of a metal lathe crittical since the metal hardware that is fitted needs to be tight. Also I find it important for the cutting tool that can be wound in and out, left to right accurately when eccentric turning the seat using a metal lathe.

hughie
5th May 2010, 12:54 PM
Thanks Hughie. What's the best way to contact Stirlo?


maybe PM him as he pops in from time to time



Thanks for the tip on silca and the lathe bed. I'll make sure it's cleaned up after each use.


Maybe look at a dry lube for the bed and ways as oil is a great collector of dust etc.

Sawdust Maker
5th May 2010, 05:10 PM
BorisL

If you're into rod building you might want to have a yarn to rhossack - he frequents the pen forum and makes rods in Washington state USA
He uses bark for his grips
nice chap

Trend Timbers (http://www.trendtimbers.com.au/) had some of the big WA banksias

Welcome to the forum :2tsup:

Boris L
5th May 2010, 06:23 PM
Hi Nick,

Yeah, I've seen many of his posts on the Rod Building Forum (http://www.rodbuildingforum.com/index.php?act=idx). Clever bloke, and he makes nice pens & reel seat inserts.

Thanks for the link and the welcome. I'll check out Trend Timbers and see what they have.

Cheers

kps
6th May 2010, 09:52 AM
I suggest you contact Neale at Djalmari Timbers (http://www.djarilmari.com), Denmark, WA. Great supply and great service.
cheers, kps

Boris L
6th May 2010, 10:14 AM
Brilliant Kps! :2tsup:

Thanks.

Grant Mack
6th May 2010, 09:46 PM
Hello Boris,
I think what you are referring to is the fruit of what is called Banksia grandis or common name, Bull Banksia.
They turn as spindles or small pots\bud vases OK, but the solid wood in the centre for what you want as rod seats is very small- maybe 20mm or so, or less.
Around this you get the remains of the bases of the seed pods, which could make for a very abrasive grip!
Also, if they have been harvested off the ground rather than cut from the tree, they can contain a lot of sand (silica).
This is a photo of something I made last month from Bull Banksia fruit.
Length is 200mm x 220mm high to get some idea of scale.
Regards
Grant MacKinnon
PS: Miss my NZ trout fishing

Boris L
6th May 2010, 11:07 PM
OK, but the solid wood in the centre for what you want as rod seats is very small- maybe 20mm or so, or less.
Around this you get the remains of the bases of the seed pods, which could make for a very abrasive grip!
Also, if they have been harvested off the ground rather than cut from the tree, they can contain a lot of sand (silica).
This is a photo of something I made last month from Bull Banksia fruit.
Length is 200mm x 220mm high to get some idea of scale.

PS: Miss my NZ trout fishing

Grant, the grip you see in the photo is approx. 7/8- 1" thick at the thickest part. It's exactly 7" long. I realise the seed pods would be visible, this is a desirable feature which would make it unique. Of course the whole nut would need to be impregnated with an acrylic or an epoxy to water proof it. The holes in the seed pods would need to be filled also which would provide a smooth finish that could be polished.

It's definitely doable and would be very attractive.

Nice piece you posted there. I see you've won a prize for that. Congratulations.

I miss NZ trout too, roll on November! :2tsup:

Grant Mack
7th May 2010, 12:51 AM
Grant, the grip you see in the photo is approx. 7/8- 1" thick at the thickest part. It's exactly 7" long. I realise the seed pods would be visible, this is a desirable feature which would make it unique. Of course the whole nut would need to be impregnated with an acrylic or an epoxy to water proof it. The holes in the seed pods would need to be filled also which would provide a smooth finish that could be polished.

It's definitely doable and would be very attractive.

Nice piece you posted there. I see you've won a prize for that. Congratulations.

I miss NZ trout too, roll on November! :2tsup:
Boris,
If you want to use the core of the nut then you will find that after you get through all the "fluff" then you do get down to some solid wood with attractive recesses ie seed compartment bases.
These can be filled with two part epoxy and then turned and finished as you would do pens or so forth.
I would then treat the whole project as a spindle\pen turning exercise.
Regards
Grant MacKinnon
PS-What type of Bamboo are you using for your rods and what type of fishing eg fresh or salt?

Boris L
7th May 2010, 02:41 AM
Boris,
If you want to use the core of the nut then you will find that after you get through all the "fluff" then you do get down to some solid wood with attractive recesses ie seed compartment bases.
These can be filled with two part epoxy and then turned and finished as you would do pens or so forth.
I would then treat the whole project as a spindlepen turning exercise.
Regards
Grant MacKinnon
PS-What type of Bamboo are you using for your rods and what type of fishing eg fresh or salt?

Yes, that's similar to how I envisaged using them for rod grips. The bamboo species is Arundinaria amabilis (tonkin bamboo).

These rods are for freshwater. Trout mainly.

dai sensei
7th May 2010, 08:23 PM
There is a medium sized banksia pod around here from the Swamp Banksia (Banksia oblongifolia). I use them to cast bottle stoppers, pendant blanks and other things where the larger ones are required. I cast them in a similar way to my Coastal Banksia pods (Banksia integrifolia) I use for pens (see here (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f222/dai-senseis-cast-banksia-pen-blanks-115040/)) except I use conduits to cast them.


Let me know if you are interested, I still have a couple and could do a special cast with the colour of your choice, assuming I have one long enough.


Cheers

dai sensei
7th May 2010, 10:23 PM
Here's a photo of Coastal Banksia and Swamp Banksia pods. One ready to cast, the other cast in pink. The cast Coastal Banksia here is 19mm dia (inside a 25mm cast) and 90mm long. The cast Swamp Banksia is 5" long and dia 2", the uncast (my largest) 7" long and dia 1.75" to 2". These ones are very similar to the giant Bansias from WA (ie plenty of solid timber) just smaller. I also cast the WA Banksias for pepper grinders, they are usually 3" and up to 12" long.

If you want 1" x 7", you could use 2 Coastal Banksia (I could get 1" dia ones) joined at center, or turn down a Swamp Banksia. Both will need to be finished in CA and be quite hard, not flexible like normal fishing rod handles.

I only have 3 uncast Swamp Banksia left, so I'm collecting some more tomorrow.

Boris L
8th May 2010, 12:17 AM
Hi Neil, very nice pens. Nice idea with the colours in the pods too.

It's hard to tell if you're being generous or trying to stitch up a sale :D However, if the former, wow! that's really very nice of you. If the latter, how much for one that will need to be at least 7" long and 1 1/4' diameter? Lets see.... hmmm I think ochre yellow but not fluro.

If you're willing to show me how I can make my own casting and where I can gather my own banksia, I'd be willing to show you how I make split cane rods...:U :2tsup:

Thanks for posting.

dai sensei
8th May 2010, 09:01 PM
Yes I now sell them for pens, but yours would be a special cast I was willing to do for you. Happy to do it for fun, but it would not be free, I'd need to recover my material costs.

Alternatively, happy to tell you how, then you could do it yourself. Maybe even get you addicted to casting stuff yourself :U. Here's how:

Not sure about Swamp Banksia down your way, but you certainly have Coastal Banksia, near your coastal strip. There are quite a few banksias species down your way and you could look around for suitable pods for what you want, or combine a few in length to get what you want. Head down to your local beach and there should be heaps around, and they shed their pods all year round. You will just need to search around the trees for suitable pods - that have dropped their seeds, but still strong enough such that you cannot bend them, otherwise the rott has set in.

Prepare pods by sanding the pods to at least 5mm more than you need (by hand or disc sander). Since you want coloured resin, you can use fibreglass resin, clear casting resin, or epoxy casting resin. Without pressure casting, the latter would be better, but it is 4x cost of others. Hopefully you know someone that has some suitable resin, or share costs of buying some. You can get it from FGI industries near you, or your local Bunnings hardware (in paint section, although you will pay at least 2x price). Pigment can be also bought from FGI in gel form, or powder form from your hardware.

Next get some conduit of a suitable size, at least 5mm bigger in diameter than your pod size and 50mm longer than you need, you can cast multiple pods at once. Then seal one end with gaffa tape. Mix up some resin and heat it slightly, you need to have it very runny. Pour some resin into the tube, then place your pods in slowly and moving them around to ensure the resin distributes into the holes. Hold the pods down in the tube with something like scrap wood or dowel and some gaffa tape from the top of the tube. The npour more resin in the tube until it is well above the pods.

Then shake and vibrate the tubes to ensure all the air escapes to the top. I use a pressure pot, but as long as you follow the above, you should be Ok. Leave vertical for a few days to harden well, then remove the cast from the tube.

Alternatively to casting, you could just fill the holes by hand with any sort of wood filler of suitable colour. Thinking about the colour you want, this is probrably your easiest way of doing it.

Finally, turn them with a very sharp skew and apply plenty of thin CA as you go especially on the black hairy stuff, giving it time to harden. Intially, as soon as the little holes appear, then every 3-4mm. Do not use accellerator. I would also finish in CA or some other clear resin.

Hope this helps.