Thread: casuarina

Lovely looking wood that!
Nice score...MM

Hi Stevo,
Not really good on ID of Timber, but it looks like some Flame She Oak.
Brendan Stemp wood know, seeing he is up your way.
Even some of those Branches wood make great pens.

Thanks guys, i couldn't take anymore as the sons ute was full of camping gear, we were mean't to go this year again but as always - great plans turn upside down.

I'm keen as, to go back up as its really tranquil and there's heaps to do, so many different trees.

Now I heard Bull-oak/buloke sinks in water, so being dumb I filled a rectandular bucket half full, placed the above timber in it and "great snapping a@#$-h^*e's" it sank.

So does that make my slabs " Allocasuarina luehmannii " or are there other types of sheoak that sink?

When dry, sheoaks range from ~700kg/m3 up, with Buloke 1110kg/m3, so not all sink when dry although wet density is 1000kg/m3 and up.

You timber could well be Buloke, where the seed pods grow on the branch/trunk and their shape is the giveaway, but I can't see in photo.

As the token former-aussie-turned-expat-yank, I know my opinion is of limited weight, but I'm fairly confident that's not Flame/Hairy She Oak. The medullary rays pinch off too crisply. Hairy/Flame tends to have more rounded, elliptical terminations to the medullary rays, and often more contrast between the dark rays and rest. It also tends to have somewhat more "cathedral" growth ring patterning on the flat sawn surfaces.

I would guess that what you have is either Allocasuarina torulosa (Eastern She Oak, Forest She Oak, or just She Oak), Allocasuarina fraseriana (Western She Oak or just She Oak), or Allocasuarina luehmannii (Bull Oak or Buloke).

I'm not sure how much value the water test has since the wood is still green, but I'm inexperienced in that regard.

As someone who obsesses over species, this isn't easy for me to say... but it honestly doesn't make a lot of difference. After time, all three of those woods will darken a bit and they are usually indistinguishable. Sure, Buloke is harder, so if you want to make mallet heads or chisel handles or the like then it would be good to know, but you can bash the bejesus out of any of those woods for many many years, so it's really six and half a dozen.

My US$0.02 (formerly AU$0.0152)

Cheers,
Luke

Gentlemen thank you both for your very informative feedback, i may going up there for a day trip, so if I can I'll have look for the seed pods.

If i can convince the other day trippers we might grab the other log on the ground, they will grizzle, moan etc but if I make them a nice mallet each - that'll shut em up (for a little while at least).

Regards
Stevo