Thread: What is this wood?

Looks like Baltic pine.

I also think Baltic pine.

That was my thoughts too but where did the bank get it from? Surely not from Australia in 1850.

The pine in the pictures above could be from the USA. It sort of doesn't look exactly like the Baltic I'm used to seeing . First off I thought it looked like Radiata pine.

I went to a tip near Ballarat In Victoria once. I found some unusual big wide pine floor boards that would have come from some local wrecked house. They looked similar to those ones but were pretty weathered on one side more than the other. The top side. They were T&G and I think about 12" wide.
And as usual I came home with something from the tip .
Ballarat was extremely busy around 1851 but it was all tents then with the gold rush, so its more likely that the earliest houses were from not long after that.

I ended up building a small table from the historic boards. It was for a table up against a gum tree to eat my supper on . Bush block camping sort of style. Dog at my feet, my best friend. And No SWMBO .

There was a bit of floor joist still holding two together and old nails . As I was pulling them off the joists I came across a stenciled company stamp saying that it was Timber from some company in California USA ! I don't remember If the stamp stayed on an off cut or on the table top . I haven't seen it since though. Looked for it all over the under side of the top a number of times. Spewing that I lost it !
Ive still got the top somewhere. Sadly I had to sell the bush block not so long ago, and that paid for my new shed , which is nice to see that it transformed into something for Me rather than dissapearing. I took one small load from the block and the table top was in that.

1860s Australian furniture has a lot of Californian Red pine as secondary wood so they had other stuff coming in from the US as well .

Rob

Hello,

Reviewing image I have understood this is the soft wood it is basically for using the lighter weight furniture in our country. thanks

Thanks Rob. These boards are about 8" across and are also tongue and groove. As with yours, they are weathered on one side. But the wood is quite soft. Softer than baltic pine. The thicknesser I used to clean it up for the photos barely made a noise passing the wood through it. My partner, who lived in the States for sometime, tends to agree with you. She suggested some kind of fir. Either way, for its age it is in good condition. It is very soft, so whatever I make out of it will have to have a tough finish.

Steve.

Hi wireliner,

Looks a lot like Baltic pine but could possibly be Cyprus pine. Baltic was used a lot for flooring in South Australia but was usually around 140mm wide in the late 1800's, but can vary a bit.

Cheers, Jules.

Hi Jules,

It's too soft for Baltic Pine in my opinion. These are 200mm wide.

Other than some sort of pine, it's hard to say. It may have come to Australia as packing crates. I restored some church pews from Wangaratta that had originally been packing crates and then been re-purposed.

Could possibly be Oregon, also known as Douglas Fir which was used a lot for construction mainly roofing. Also looks like the same grain structure.

Originally Posted by wireliner

The boards were "nailed" to the joists by things that look like miniature railway spikes.

Steve

I think you will find those fasteners were called "cut" nails.There are many different types but the sort with which I was once familiar had an asymmetrical head that looked like an "L" and the shaft of the nail was tapered.

Regards
Paul