Thread: What’s your favourite all-purpose timber?

To be honest, I don't think there is such a thing. Each comes with it's own positives and negatives. One of the negatives with a lot of the top quality stuff is the price. Other factors that can have a negative side to any timber is bad milling and bad drying.
You have covered a wide spectrum when you ask for easy worked, stable and clean. Spotted gum, Blackbutt and Tas oak don't fit into this criteria.
Have a read up on timber species and there uses. Anything rated for furniture manufacture will usually fit your requirements, particularly old school choices. These timbers had to meet hand tool usability. Today, almost any timber can find its way into a piece of furniture but that is not to say it will go the distance.

Oregon, tassie oak and meranti. Clear pine too.

I doubt the Tassie oak or meranti will meet your criteria of being sustainably sourced.

The Oregon will probably be recycled.

If I had to pick just one I think it'd US White Oak; it's fairly hard, works well both by hand and machine, takes stains well and looks good just with clear as well and is generally stable although it does tend to spring a bit when being ripped.

From memory it's about $2500-2800 / cu.m for rough sawn commons grade, we always bought from Global Hardwoods; his commons was far better than anyone else's (not sure if we got looked after because we bought so much or if his supplying mills were just super picky).

Thanks for the tips. I should have said “machines well” rather than “easy to work”, hard to work with a hand plane doesn’t worry me as long as it doesn’t splinter and tear out badly. What are some of the issues with using the plantation eucalypt species for general work?

I’m not sure if its plantation or old growth, but tassie oak seems to be pretty popular for a lot of furniture and is used on the non-face components of furniture I’ve seen built recently with cabinet timbers like blackwood.

The one BIG potential issue with plantation Tas Oak/Vic Ash is bad drying leading to internal checking which shows up on the surface as cracks or little strips/fleck of timber that lift up and never go away no matter how much you sand. Pic is Blackbutt I think and particularly bad, but it gives you an idea.



You don't always get it, but if you do it's a massive PITA to deal with

That’d be a real pain for anything finish quality, must be frustrating.

Meranti/maple as they call it here. I get plenty second hand as it is used in door frames etc. Is cheapish new but from Malaysia so not sure about sustainably. Works well is strong but light.

Tassie Oak was the popular choice in the joinery shop as the all rounder. It paints up and polished up well and is stable
Mersnti is softer and doesn’t paint up well with its open grain

Spotty machines well...as long as whatever blade it is, is sharp otherwise it can tear and spelch with the best of them! Strong as hell and durable, and often very good colour and character.

US white oak is GREAT. but unlike ElanJacobs, it certainly isn't $2500! I pay almost double that.... might need to give Global Hardwoods a ring

Personally, I use a lot of pine. I find it quite acceptable. One must select through it, but I do like its properties.

Tas Blackwood is OK, I use a lot of Tas/Vic oak, but its sometimes not to good for the reasons ElanJacobs pointed out - it tends to spring and shakes seem to be common in the stuff I get. Not sure why that should be....

Oregon. Not for me! Ive heaps, but its awful to use.

Don't quote me on that price, it's been a while. Might be closer to $3k now, definitely not 5k; his Walnut was $5500 I think. He is in Melbourne, so you'll have to get it on a truck up to you

Thanks everyone. I’m always surprised at the variation in pricing, not just between suppliers but sometimes slabs are cheap due to little work to cut, sometimes attract a huge premium due to being “ready for bar top/ natural edge table”, rough sawn dried is harder to find in small quantities because it gets dressed and marked up.

And its annoying that slabs are priced each and boards are priced lineal and the only way to actually compare anything is constant conversion back to $/cubic metre. I even saw an ad on gumtree today locally pricing in superfeet!

I’m shopping for a pack of comsel 25mm US white oak atm . $2055 a M3 as a whole pack and $2803 for broken pack . That’s an unusual big jump from broken to opened . I haven’t questioned why, yet. A 1.4 M3 pack of 50 mm comsel I got a few months back cost $2700 per M3 . + gst and delivery .

Does anyone use comsel for table tops or other visible areas? Whenever I see a knot in prime white oak I quite like how it looks but have never seen comsel oak planed. Are the knots a lot bigger or ugly?

What are people thoughts of American white ash?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk