Thread: Wood .. glorious wood

All that Jarrah looks nice Derek - and that side board looks as though it will keep you busy for a while yet.

I personally get wood from all over - I had the chance to get my hands on quite a bit of radiata pine for a very good price for a while there and have since stockpiled a fair bit of it. All of my hardwoods come from salvage situations - old pallets, logs, bearers, bits from the scrap yard etc. The exception being the bunch of exotic stuff I got from a clearing sale a few weeks ago. Anything else was found just here and there - usually not moving quickly enough to escape the boot of my car.

One of the great pleasures in woodworking is the thrill of uncovering the hidden secrets of the wood's surface when dressing it.
Old Jim Kingshott used to say that we should all feel privileged to be the first person on earth to gaze on that dressed timber.
Most of my timber has come from Malcolm Ward - he just lives up the road - but I have also used a lot of re-cycled timber in my time.
I haven't used jarrah at all, but it surely looks lovely - and heavy.
One thing's for sure, you won't be re-arranging your furniture too often.
Good luck with the build Derek.
Keep us posted
SG

Very apt thread title derek!

Good building to you.

Hi Derek,

That 8x2 looks very nice. A good afternoon's work there, and a small fortune if you had to buy new.

Like you I have some Jarrah from my house renovation. Had some nice straight Karri but the white-ants ate it, just left some dust.

Salvage yards are a favourite, find some gems every now and then, like 4x2 Tuart. Local house demolitions are also good when you can catch the salvage guys on site.

Looking forward to the new project, some bookmatching perhaps.

Cheers
Pops

Demolishion sites were a great source of 2nd hand timber how ever latest trends indicate this has become more difficult as the latest practice is to demolish by bringing in a mechanical shovel and bowling over the house with out dismantling any of the roofing timbers etc.
The demolishion site ends up becoming one great mess of rubble. While all this is going on no one is allowed on the site.
So much for recycling.
I find my source now is the local salvage company Diggers in Daglish, they get in now and again a good range of 2nd hand timber as well as a range of joinery items etc. Recently I was able to pick up 3 ex 2400 x 150x 150 turned Jarrah verandah posts as well as 2 Jarrah multi light glazed timber doors for a very reasonable sum.
The posts were for a Pergola 5m x 3m, the rafters 8 off 3.6 long x 175 x 50 I picked up from Stirling Balcatta recycling yard for $50.00. Its a matter of being there at the right time.
Lately I have been doing some minor renovations which required a range of Pine timber this I was able to obtain from a local building company who specialise in building home units, I have a arrangement that when the roofing carpenters complete the roof I can come in and collect all the offcuts. These offcuts can consist of 85 x 45 Imported Baltic Pine and as well as 150 x 35 Radiata Pine all in lengths ranging from 600 to 2400 long. There is the odd lengths of laminated timber beams."All Free". The builders just dump all the offcuts when they do their periodical site clean ups.
Buying pine is now a no no.
Regards
Mac

Where do I like to get my wood?
1. Dumpster-diving
2. Drive-by scrounging
3. Harvesting trees destined for burning or burying
4. If all else fails - buy it.....

Pics: a) Harvesting Camphor trees otherwise destined to be burned.
b) Freehand slicing up some River Oak that was about to be woodchipped before I rolled it into the ute & fled into the night.....
c) a pile of Camphor rescued with very limited time & a dodgy saw, hence some pretty rough billets...

Most of all I like gifts of ready sawn wood like the Red Cedar my brother gave me, and the whopping billet of same a B.I.L bequethed me a while ago. Better than money in the bank!

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Malcolm Eaton

Demolishion sites were a great source of 2nd hand timber how ever latest trends indicate this has become more difficult as the latest practice is to demolish by bringing in a mechanical shovel and bowling over the house with out dismantling any of the roofing timbers etc.
The demolishion site ends up becoming one great mess of rubble. While all this is going on no one is allowed on the site.
So much for recycling.


I find my source now is the local salvage company Diggers in Daglish, they get in now and again a good range of 2nd hand timber as well as a range of joinery items etc. Recently I was able to pick up 3 ex 2400 x 150x 150 turned Jarrah verandah posts as well as 2 Jarrah multi light glazed timber doors for a very reasonable sum.
The posts were for a Pergola 5m x 3m, the rafters 8 off 3.6 long x 175 x 50 I picked up from Stirling Balcatta recycling yard for $50.00. Its a matter of being there at the right time.
Lately I have been doing some minor renovations which required a range of Pine timber this I was able to obtain from a local building company who specialise in building home units, I have a arrangement that when the roofing carpenters complete the roof I can come in and collect all the offcuts. These offcuts can consist of 85 x 45 Imported Baltic Pine and as well as 150 x 35 Radiata Pine all in lengths ranging from 600 to 2400 long. There is the odd lengths of laminated timber beams."All Free". The builders just dump all the offcuts when they do their periodical site clean ups.
Buying pine is now a no no.
Regards
Mac

Since my Posting I received a suprise last night when my Son in Law arrived with his ute loaded with a heap of timber from a Demo site he had been working on.
He off loaded the following-
2 lenghts of Karri 3m x 250 x 50,
3 lenghts x 3m x 175 x 40 Jarrah, although 1 length may be Karri? Its hard to tell.
Now I have to find out what I can make out of that lot, the timber is in remarkable good condition with minimal nail holes.
Any suggestion in clearly identifying the difference between Jarrah and Karri with out setting in on fire?

Regards. Mac

Hi, just as Mac would like to know - I too wish to know how to tell the difference between Jarrah and Karri when it is in the salvage yard.
Hope someone can answer.
Regards
Les

One burns with black ash residue and the other with white ask residue, so a salvage yard chap told me. I think it was Jarrah and Karri in that order, but do not quote me.

And no I have not burned any of my Jarrah and Karri to find out. (You just use a small splinter anyway).

Or as I said earlier, leave it in a pile in the backyard, what the termites turn to dust is (was) Karri. Dilemma solved.

Generally Karri is more 'fury' when rough sawn than Jarrah but the new young Jarrah seems to also be a bit 'fury' I have found. That is the limit of my wood identification knowledge, (word used loosely).

Cheers
Pops