Beefwood - waxy ?

[reeves]

I was working on some beefwood today and noticed when sanding that it produces the same kind of residue on sandpaper same as u get when u try to sand over polish or wax, like heaps of it. I sanded up to 600 then buffed extensively with a cloth to remove waxy streaks and it produced a nice polished finish with no finishing products at all. Just like wax.

Thats in the first pic.

The other pics of the Galaxy box are of the finished item, in beefwood body, Bunya pine lid and mulga finial. The final finish was combination of burnishing oil, EEE, white shellac and shellawax glow polish in about 7 coats and heavily buffed with a cloth nappy ;-)

[robyn2839]

nice job mate love the finnial, not getting any sawdust on that snake are you, hows the new bub?good i hope, have you got green grass yet after that rain, have got a big peice of blackbean for you when i see you next.bob

[ss_11000]

this thread came at the right time:) i got some beefwood in the post yesty and now i no what to expect when sanding, and i didnt even need to do a search:D

btw, nice turning work:2tsup:

cheers

[reeves]

Bob, no worries mate look forward to the blackbean, yeah bub is doing fine, eating and pooping and growing at a rapid rate, snakes been around a bit since the sun come out and the area is generally looking greener after some decent rain but its getting warmer again..yeah the finial turned ok but the acacias can be a bit splitty gettin em that thin so gonna try another and turn it from the other end..

SS, yeah the trick with the beefwood seems to be to buff it up at high speed and dry out the wax a bit, i'd tried some smaller bits before and hadnt noticed it as much, maybe some bit are more waxy than other..

here se verns comments on it

Beefwood grows to be a very large tree which can provide large stable boards for cabinetry and it is a very popular wood on the Highlands with many locals choosing it for furniture. Myself, I can't stand the stuff! It wasn't the aboriginals favoured source of resin for binding tools for nothing. Beefwood is so high in resin content that you get icicles of it sticking out from your turning when you stop the lathe. As for sanding - every swipe clogs the paper. It takes a nice finish - for about a day, then the resin starts oozing out and ruins your work. While I have seen some beautiful Beefwood furniture crafted by our local club members, I'll leave it alone as much as possible.

[OGYT]

Reeves, ya done good! Never heard of Beefwood before, but sounds like it'd be fun to turn. I like the combinations of wood you used on this piece.
I wonder an occasional wash during sanding, with lacquer thinner or VM&P naptha, would make it a little less waxy...

[Cliff Rogers]

I have a very old log of beefwood & the is something the oozes ever so slowly out of the pores for a very long time.

[reeves]

Never heard of Beefwood before, but sounds like it'd be fun to turn.

Verns got some info on beefwood on his site, its a grevillia but harder than most and definatley fun to turn, once its gets a good polish the grain really comes out..

http://web.aanet.net.au/ttit/treepages/beefwood_main.htm


I like the combinations of wood you used on this piece.

yeah i am lucky to have enough wood collected to be able to try and match color and texture pretty well, they are all 'local' woods to queensland, the Bunya pine is from this area near the Bunya mountains, awesome trees indeed, ancient aracurias,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunya_Pine

the beefwood is more up Verns area in central Qld but variants of beefwood exist all over australia, that one is the grevillea striata

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beefwood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grevillea_striata

and the mulga is from out west

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_aneura

cheeeeers
john

[Cliff Rogers]

My log of beefwood came from in amongst the mulga just west of Longreach.

[rsser]

Lovely piece John. Full marks!