Blue Gum

[G. Gefaell]

I'm a naval architect working closely with several boayards in Galicia, NW Spain, where many fishing boats are still built in wood.
In Galicia we have extensive plantations of Blue Gum (eucaliptus globulus) mainly for the production of paper paste, although a growing amount is nowadays devoted to houses flooring and furniture construction.
Also boatbuilders widely use this wood for parts of the boats' structures, mainly for long longitudinal members and also deck beams. In rare ocasions has even been used for hull planking.
Also I've supervising the building of an small rowing boat (very heavy!) totally built with Blue Gum, with laminated frames and strip planking for the hull, as an experiment in a wooden boatbuilding school.
I would like to know other countries' experiences in the use of Blue Gum for boat/shipbuilding, and posted a thread with this question in Boatdesign Forums, with smalll success till now.
A member of these Woodwork Forums, Boatmik, told me about them, an so here I am, looking for more information on Blue Gum boatbuilding.
I know Blue Gum clippers were built in Tasmania 100 years ago with great success, mostly in Blue Gum and Huon Pine. I bought the book "Blue Gum Clippers and Whale Ships of Tasmania" (Bill Lawson, 1949), but it is not a boat building book and only mentions Blue Gum laterally.
All information, experiences, books, references, etc., on this wood for boatbuilding will be most welcome and appreciated.
Cheers.
Guillermo.

[Boatmik]

Good to see you here, Guillermo. Maybe someone can help more than I can - I can recognise Blue Gum on a good day and know it has been used for boatbuilding in the past, but any data, experience or other information on it would be great.

Cheers
MIK

[TK1]

Hi Guillermo,

Try to make contact with these guys...

http://www.woodenboat.org.au/

The Aust Wooden Boat Association may be able to provide contacts of someone with experience in using blue gum. A friend of mine has an old navy Pilot Boat built in the 1940's with Kauri and Blue Gum, and it's still solid after 60 years.

Good luck with your search and I'm sure we'd all like ot see the end result if you do build a boat with the timber.

Regards,
Darren

[bloggs1968]

Guillermo,

I was involved recently in the building of a 30' traditional carvel motorsailer in which we used wet/green blue gum for the keel, stern post and deadwood ( and ribs). This was old growth timber ( around 3-400 year old).

Whilst not overly difficult to work, it was very hard and had a moderate blunting effect on edge tools ( and the chainsaw!). The biggest problem we had was slowing the moisture loss from the timber as it tends to surface check very easily in the warmer weather and we were having to cover it in wet sawdust at the end of each day whilst working on the keel outside.

Some months after the backbone was assembled and the hull was planked, the timber had shrunk enough that you could see daylight between the sternpost and stern knee but she'll take up ok.

The blue gum ribs steam bent very well too.

Hope this helps

[eddie the eagle]

Guillermo,

E.globulus is Tasmanian Blue Gum - we've got several species of 'blue gum' in Australia. This might help you narrow your search.

You've gotten some good responses here to date.

CHeers,

eddie

[Wild Dingo]

Now this is an interesting thread really... when we moved down here we found the property had quite a number of good sized blue gums along the fence line that had to be removed and theres a few more within the property... now I dont have a clue which blue gum they are but heres what we found when we dropped them... I had initially hoped to be able to use these in the building of my boat however within half an hour I mean half an hour here fellas they had cracked severely at the base and on removing the bark splits were showing all along the length... we rushed like buggary to slather the ends with paint but now almost 6 months later they are no good for anything

must be another sort of blue gum than what we have here eh

[Daddles]

Nah Shane, they knew it was you and when they realised you wanted to make boats, they panicked :D

Richard

[Ianab]

I've sawn a medium sized bluegum from a friends place, I believe it was E globulus. I was nice enough to cut although you could tell there was tension present by the way some boards curl off the mill. But drying it's another matter. End splits, surface checks, internal honeycombing, cupping.. you name it, it did it :eek: . Most of it is still useable, needs a bit more trimming and jointing compared to the other (soft) woods I use, but it's hard, strong and finishes up nice.
If you cut a log get it milled quickly, like the same day. No amount of end paint will save it in log form.
A couple of pics of sawing it attached

Cheers

Ian

[Wild Dingo]

Well thank gawd for that!! Had me worried for a bit there Ian thought it was just me that had these issues with trees

So... given thats a nice wee lucas mill I think I see there how are you finding it? worth the investment? plenty of work? Just curious just curious not anywhere on the horizon for me but have been congitatin one for ages info is always good to file away for future reference eh ;)

Tassie blue gum??? whassis?? I thought we were talking about Sydney blue gum!! strewth :o anyway what I muttered still stands :rolleyes:

[Ianab]

Hi Shane

The mill is an old model Peterson, powered by a big chainsaw, but with a swingblade like the Lucas. It works really well, but I'd like one of the new ones, more power :D
The mills are easy enough to operate, no hard work involved in the actual sawing. Same cant be said for moving logs and green boards :rolleyes:
Way I look at it, my mate spent 3 times what my mill cost on a boat, and we take our toys out about the same amount... but I've cut more boards than he's caught fish :D

Cheers

Ian

[Exador]

Now this is an interesting thread really... when we moved down here we found the property had quite a number of good sized blue gums along the fence line that had to be removed and theres a few more within the property... now I dont have a clue which blue gum they are but heres what we found when we dropped them... I had initially hoped to be able to use these in the building of my boat however within half an hour I mean half an hour here fellas they had cracked severely at the base and on removing the bark splits were showing all along the length... we rushed like buggary to slather the ends with paint but now almost 6 months later they are no good for anything

must be another sort of blue gum than what we have here eh

You might be surprised about how deep the cracks are, shane. I've just milled the first of a couple of logs of spotted gum (E. Maculata) that looked gone for all money in log form, but milled beautifully with the Lucas swing blade into 4x4s and 4x2s It had been down for about 12 months. We only ran the mill over it because we thought it would be less work than hand-cutting it for firewood.

[Exador]

Nice bit of gully erosion happening on your friends place Ian. Perhaps he should have left the tree where it was?

[Wild Dingo]

Damn!! :mad: And there Id thought they were totalled and moved them over to the back pile near the creek as part of the ruddy levee bank and now the loaders buggared off!! RATS RATS AND DOUBLE RATS :(

sigh... woe... buggar

[Daddles]

Damn!! :mad: And there Id thought they were totalled and moved them over to the back pile near the creek as part of the ruddy levee bank and now the loaders buggared off!! RATS RATS AND DOUBLE RATS :(

sigh... woe... buggar

Sharpen your pocket knife and whittle them down to carryable chunks mate :D

Richard

[Ianab]

Nice bit of gully erosion happening on your friends place Ian. Perhaps he should have left the tree where it was?

Nah... just the tracks where the digger hauled the logs out.. that IS the bottom of the gulley, everything else falls INTO there ;)

Cheers

Ian

[Exador]

Nah... just the tracks where the digger hauled the logs out.. that IS the bottom of the gulley, everything else falls INTO there ;)

Cheers

Ian

Looking closer, I see what looked like a block subsidence was just the track marks. Do you have much of an erosion problem over in the Shaky Isles? I'm so used to seeing eroded gullies due to overclearing that I just assume everywhere is the same.

[Ianab]

Do you have much of an erosion problem over in the Shaky Isles?

Depends what part you are in. This farm is hilly but pretty stable, couple of meters of heavy volcanic ash over stable sandstone. Other places, yeah they should have just been left in forest, and the guys with any sense are planting them in trees again. Even radiata pine is better than grass at holding unstable hillsides together :D

Cheers

Ian

[Wild Dingo]

See now Ian didnt I say that sheep chuckin caper isnt any good for you? ;) Not only was I totally amazed at myself with knowing that but seems that sheep chuckin caper isnt much good for the land either!! :eek: So as Ive said many times mate you blokes have to stop chasin them sheep around the back paddock and up to the edge of the cliffs its deteriorating the land when they back up!! :D :D strewth I spin myself out sometimes!! :p