Thread: Milling paperbark?

I milled a large one about 10 years ago, most of it had a fiddleback pattern. Made some nice pieces of furniture out of it.
Some of the thinner slabs did move a bit while drying, but overall I was happy with it.
I have seen other slabs that people have milled and they were quite bland looking, so maybe I was lucky with mine.
Worth a look I think.

I knew an old Carpenter that told me they built heaps of houses around Ingham in the 70's using it, he also said they used to use it for boat building.

I have milled up a couple of small ones. I haven't used the timber but it seems to be reasonably stable so far.

Milled a short stump once. Was quite stable. Bit uneven when drying. Getting all of the bark off was not easy though I could probably have left teh inner layers on.

Have seen it used as rafters and studs in old rural buildings. As long as it is not exposed to moisture or the weather seems to hold up well.

Since I have 50 or so acres of it. Would love to hear any other ideas for its use.

Gary

Darren, when cut it is identical to jarrah, however, when you stack it strip it out at no more than 250c and stack it next to a loading ramp so you can park a Mack truck on it, it moves like buggery because of it extremely high MC when green But lovely timber as long as you are prepared to baby sit it.

Thanks lads for you replies. Is there any merit Nifty in leaving it in log form in the shade to dry out bit or will it split all over the place? Ps I haven't bought a Mack truck yet... a few other toys were before it on the list

I'd mill it straight away. Cracks from the pith move reasonably quickly through the centre. The bark is a PITA to remove and in places (holes?) penetrates quite deeply into the timber

One thing I was warned of before I milled mine, but wasn't truly prepared for, was the number of shakes in the timber. I got surprisingly few decent lengths or thicknesses of timber for my efforts, although I got lots of smaller pieces. I hope you have more luck. However, Ironwood said his had fiddleback and mine had it too. It is a nice timber and gorgeous when freshly milled. Don't forget to seal the ends.