Eucalyptus camaldulensis

[Caveman]

G'day all,
I have seen a lot of material written about red gum on this forum.
What is the botanical name for red gum???
Is it Eucalyptus camaldulensis??? (I have seen it referred to as Red River Gum in the literature that I have).
If not, is E. camaldulensis suitable for turning? A neigbour has a stand of large trees ready for coppicing soon and if it is suitable for turning, he says I am welcome to claim any pieces that look useful. I'm sure it will be very prone to splitting.
Thanks for any info,

[Baz]

Andy. E.Camaldulensis is indeed River Red Gum. This is a beautiful red timber but is prone to splitting and pockets of gum vein. I would rough turn it into bowls about 25mm thick ASAP and liberally coat them in timber sealer or bury them in the shavings and then pray for the next 5 months. If possible store them in a cool dry place. Be prepared for some serious warping. Other than that I would split the logs along the lenght and seal the ends and store in a cool airy place. Hope this helps, the timber is worth it.
Cheers
Barry

[Caveman]

Baz - Thanks for the confirmation. Have seen pictures on this forum and in books of red gum articles - looks great.
Will definitely get my paws onto some of it.

[Harry II]

a bit of red gum i found in the form of an old FENCE POST

[ozwinner]

Whoah Harry.
Love the piece....

Good work, I love the weird out there creations.

Where In Vic are you?
I would love to see your work if I could..

Al :eek: :cool:

[dai sensei]

Here in Aus it's used for a lot of fence posts and firewood:eek: , a good source of seasoned turning blanks:cool:

[ozwinner]

Harry..
I was blown away by your art. ( Harry sent me some emails with piccys of the art work,,)

You need to show them here so others may see them..( start a new thread )

I am humbled by your work......

Al :eek:

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Caveman,

'Tis one of my favourite woods; I go through a lot of it. Can't get enough old stumps/fence-posts so I buy it as "garden sleepers" @ around $8-10 ea. This stuff's so green you can still hear the bugs chewing. ;)

I don't find splitting to be an issue, but I billet all mine & seal it as soon as I get my hands on it. Gum inclusions are a concern but they're also part of the timbers character; knowing how to fill with epoxy resin will be helpful. The main problem is movement; I don't think it ever stops! Well... not until it's cured for 50 years or so. :rolleyes: If rough-turning green, turn larger wall thickness than you do for other green blanks. You won't regret it. I prefer mine well'n'truly dried and I still get movement, but thats partly why I like it so much. There's naught quite like turning a nice, thin-walled hollow form and watching it find it's own shape. Usually far more aesthetically pleasing than I turned it in the first place! :)

If you want to turn lidded boxes, thread-work, etc. you'd be better off going for one of the other, more stable Red Gums...

[DanP]

Caveman,

E. Camaldulensis is a beautiful timber. Watch it when it is well seasoned, it can get VERY hard (I snapped a HSS roughing gouge in half when I got a dig in). I got some from Parks Victoria when they knocked some over in the local forest (Biggest River Red Gum forest in the world :p). By the time I got it home it was useless, split too much to use for anything but pen blanks.

If you have any say in it, get them to cut it at the start of cooler weather, so that it has all of winter/spring to lose some of its moisture content before the warmer weather. The MOST important thing IMO is to split it. Get the heart out of it by splitting down the middle. The bits I had split from the centre outwards within 1/2 hour of it being cut (35° day).

Hope you get some good bits,

Dan

[Wizened of Oz]

E. camaldulensis is probably the most widespread Eucalypt in Australia, growing along watercourses from just west of the Great Divide right over to the Kimberleys. But because it does not occur in the populated thin eastern coastal strip the majority of Australians have never seen it in it's natural state. The name means "belonging to Camalduli".
But Camalduli is/was? an order of monks in Naples, Italy. How did our most widespread tree get named for Italian monks? Apparently it was first described, in 1805, from a tree growing in the garden of a Camalduli monastery.
Certainly travelled quickly.
You all wanted to know that, didn't you? :)

[Caveman]

Hi all,
thanks for all the info - certainly looks like a great timber that finishes beautifully - the pictures show some variation in colour (very dark in the pic of Harry II's work) or is that just the finish?
We have just come through a period of prolonged drought so I guess now would be a good time to harvest the trees before the long rains set in???
Look forward to trying some:) .

[rod1949]

Here in Aus it's used for a lot of fence posts and firewood:eek: , a good source of seasoned turning blanks:cool:http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=20672&stc=1&thumb=1 (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=20672)

So is this picture of the nice shiny polished turned up thing going to look when its aged... rough and craggy?:D

[Auld Bassoon]

Hi Andy,

I love Red Gum, even though it can (and often is) a total swine to work with because of the way it moves, twists, and even tries to run away; not to mention the gum pockets, etc :rolleyes:

However, it can come up really rather nicely - here's a demi lune table that I made late last year - and it's still in shape and looking as it did in this pic:



My current project, pics of which will be posted soon, is for a large home theatre unit, faced with RG.

If you have the same species (or similar) in your locale, give a go, but I'd think that truning it would be very difficult because of the gum pockets. With flat pieces (and even veneer starts out flat ;) ) it's challenging enough to plane/scrape flat without huge tearout, and that's with properly sharp planes.

Taking a gouge to a chunk of it on a lathe may, however, help you with learning Arabic :p :eek: :D

[Slow6]

Redgum is great.. as already said if seasoned. I have tried to use fairly fresh stuff in the past always to be disapointed and grumpy. but if I see a post or sleeper thats looks 50years+ I'll grab it and run home giggling like a schoolgirl.

[rsser]

Yep Andy, there is a lot of variation in colour and density. I've battled with lumps that are rock hard and fine grained. Other pieces have been more 'approachable'. Oil finishes work best IMHO.

[Spindleshanks]

Wizened of Oz is right. The tree is named after the Camaldoli gardens near Naples, Italy. What?? It is the most widespread of all eucalypts in Australia except Southern WA, south-western SA, and a narrow coastal strip of QLD and NSW. It is well known in the Top End but my own observations are that the tree looks a bit different than the large ones which are seen, for example along the Murray. The Top End variety, however, does retain the rather alarming habit of periodically dropping a branch or two. I can remember my earliest warning about camping, ie, never sleep under one!

[Caveman]

Thanks all for the contributions.
Have just come across this site (which I'm sure you're all aware of): www.aussiewoods.info (http://www.aussiewoods.info) a very useful site even to those of us outside of Oz.
We have a large number of exotic species from Oz growing here.
For example, by chance several months back I came across a few large logs of Toona australi whichby the look of it turns nicely and looks beautiful:). Of course they managed to squeeze their way into the back of my pick up and are now sitting with their ends painted hopefully slowly seasoning (think I should split them length wise and re-seal them as per the advice on another tread).
Oh for the time to deal with all this lovely wood:mad:!

[rsser]

I thought Toona Australis was Oz Red Cedar? If so, Andy, you're sitting on red gold my friend. PM if you'd like to send some over ;-}

Apart from that, Eucalypts can hybridize readily so often you can't be sure what you've got.

Many euc. species since Joseph Banks have in any case been reclassified as Corymbia or Angophora.

(Ficifolia is a case in point).

[Caveman]

I thought Toona Australis was Oz Red Cedar? If so, Andy, you're sitting on red gold my friend. PM if you'd like to send some over ;-}


:) Thanks rsser - yup, the aussiewoods site says the common name for Toona australi is Aus Red Cedar:).
Nice to know it was worth saving from the fireplace!

Not sure how to feed large 100+kg lumps of wood into my computer otherwise would PM some to you:D

[DanP]

Andy,

You will find your Red Gum to be fairly pale. Most plantation RG's are. The deep red comes with time. Don't be disappointed if it's fairly pale it will darken with age.

Dan

[Caveman]

Thanks DanP,
These trees were planted a long long time ago when God was a boy and have been coppiced once since then (they must have been planted by some of the earlier European settlers to this area +-100yrs ago). They have grown in an area that receives about 400-500mm rainfall per annum. Maybe the rate of growth has something to do with colour?
I'm not too fussed about colour - just looking forward to trying some new timber. If it darkens with age is a bonus.

[rsser]

Andy, Oz Red Cedar is light and fairly open-grained. It's not in my view a terrific turning timber. But for furniture on the other hand ...

[Ian007]

Hi Andy,

I love Red Gum, even though it can (and often is) a total swine to work with because of the way it moves, twists, and even tries to run away; not to mention the gum pockets, etc :rolleyes:

However, it can come up really rather nicely - here's a demi lune table that I made late last year - and it's still in shape and looking as it did in this pic:



My current project, pics of which will be posted soon, is for a large home theatre unit, faced with RG.

If you have the same species (or similar) in your locale, give a go, but I'd think that truning it would be very difficult because of the gum pockets. With flat pieces (and even veneer starts out flat ;) ) it's challenging enough to plane/scrape flat without huge tearout, and that's with properly sharp planes.

Taking a gouge to a chunk of it on a lathe may, however, help you with learning Arabic :p :eek: :D

Hey steve I think you need a bigger picture as I cant quite see the detail well enough:p

and the door wedge is a bit poor in its manufacture, please get onto it:p :p

[DanP]

Ian,

You could have deleted the pic out of the quote. Now I've gotta download it twice. :rolleyes:

Dan