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  1. #1
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    Default Ancient & Prehistoric Wood

    Ancient & Prehistoric Woods

    OK here are some pics of old woods for your pleasure, enjoyment and information. These are ancient and one even prehistoric wood.
    Note: none are fossilised or petrified (ie turned to stone) although some minerals may affect their colour and strength . They have all been cut with my wood bandsaw,


    A) its an very old Casuarina which is just starting to go off colour (greying on outside and breaking down but enough sound wood for a few wood samples for IWS members, It came from a dry rocky creek bed in SE Queensland on a friends beef farm) . I don’t know the species or its age. The bold medullary rays give it away.

    Old Cas.jpg

    B) Is a block of Bangalay or Southern Mahogany (Eucalyptus botryoides) a fairly common species in Gippsland Vic where I live. It was uncovered as a log after flooding in a river ... some made its way to me as payment for service (id and C dating).

    It was identified by an academic friend in Sydney who enjoyed wood identification from microscopic features, Identifying eucalypts is particularly difficult if just given a sample. But knowing the region and likely species a comparison allowed a reasonably positive id. It was carbon dated at 2400 years old. The wood is now quite black from iron diffusing from burial and from its watery subsurface environment reacting with its tannins. Same as with ancient red gum. The wood of bangalay is coarser than redgum. This block shows the water weather top face and cut black almost featureless wood.

    Old Bang.jpg

    C) Show two reference samples of ancient red gum which most here will be familiar with as it been commercialised by many. It been carbon dated at around 10,000 years. Its almost black or quite black. It grew around the last Ice Age and is occasionally uncovered in old gravel pits which were tributaries of the then Murray River,

    Anc RG.jpg

    Anc RG2.jpg

    However much older wood wood has been and is being dug out in New Zealand and called Bog Kauri. Some is dated at at least 50,000 years the limit of Carbs dating. What is amazing is the quality of its wood and large slabs are still milled for furniture and table tops and wood crafs. Limited quantities make their way out of NZ, (I will post a Pic later)

    D) Finally my oldest wood. Its a prehistoric softwood from just above the coal seam in La Trobe Valley. It could date from about 10 Million years before now. Dated from its geological strata it was found in near. Thats 1000 times older than ancient Red Gum and well before Man evolved it modern humans. Its is probably a Cupressinoxylon sp. Certainly an early softwood. It is light in weight still woody in nature, dark brown with some black streaks but with s nice sheen.

    Euge

    Cupres.jpg


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  3. #2
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    We stayed with a Dairy farmer in a B&B (back in the 80's) in the very north of NZ who gave me a piece of (Bog)Swamp Kauri when I said I was doing Woodturning at the time.Can't for the life of me find it now I know I have not used it,He reckoned on it being very old according to the source he got it from.
    I know that they are still sourcing very old timber from swamp regions over there as I believe they may be doing in Tassie.
    Johnno

    Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

  4. #3
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    Hi Euge, how did you manage to find these? Did you carbon date them to confirm age? How do you find specimens like this? Particularly the red gum in such a large billet size (I’m assuming it’s a large billet?).

  5. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by jw2373 View Post
    Hi Euge, how did you manage to find these? Did you carbon date them to confirm age? How do you find specimens like this? Particularly the red gum in such a large billet size (I’m assuming it’s a large billet?).
    I have been looking for the rare unusual woods for many years, mostly to collect samples and to write about or study them. In some cases I found these rare wood myself, but none of these ancient woods. Having a research background I've made many contacts in the past to assist with C-dating, chemcial analysis and difficult wood identification, when I don't know myself. Some of these old woods were purchased, some were given to me and others were traded. They are mostly used to illustrate publications.

    Yes, its a largish billet of Bangalay - about 300 mm long x 200 wide x 120 mm thick. Logs of ancient Red Gum were found and sare till occasionally found. About 25 yrs ago I was approached at a Wood Show when it was first found for advice on valuing and commercialising it, but that's another story.

  6. #5
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    Amazing to see such old wood. That last one looks so much like Pink Myrtle from tasmania. I have some pure black wood that looks like redgum picked up from a gravel bank on Wallaby Creek near Cooktown. If you like I could send a sample.

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    I've got a few bits of petrified wood I've picked up along the way.

    Best bit I've ever seen belongs to a friend, it came up during dam sinking operations near Winton, Qld : about 600/long and thick as your wrist, and heavily opalised. They use it for a doorstop.

  8. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by John.G View Post
    I've got a few bits of petrified wood I've picked up along the way.

    Best bit I've ever seen belongs to a friend, it came up during dam sinking operations near Winton, Qld : about 600/long and thick as your wrist, and heavily opalised. They use it for a doorstop.
    Yes John, Peterified wood is STONE as the name means and so is of interest to lapidary people. I have quite a few bits too lying around too. But found I cant use my bandsaw on it Petrified wood is abundant in small and large sizes from various areas across Australia and there are Groups eg on FB where such wood (after its cut) is sold / exchanged / shown .

  9. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toymaker Len View Post
    Amazing to see such old wood. That last one looks so much like Pink Myrtle from tasmania. I have some pure black wood that looks like redgum picked up from a gravel bank on Wallaby Creek near Cooktown. If you like I could send a sample.
    Hi Len,

    Yes the last one has a similar sheen and fine texture of myrtle BUT it is a Softwood not a hardwood like myrtte is. Its been studied a fair bit under a microscope. (Note: "softwood "& "hardwood" have nothing to do with wood hardness eg Balsa in a hardwood). Its also much lighter / less dense than myrtle.

    Is the wood you have wood ie not stone? Have you cut it? what its like inside. It may be an ebony. You can always cut an end & take a good pic of end grain. It MAY show something interesting. I'm always curious about unusual woods, less interested in petrified woods, unless they have some unusual features. Not sure is red gum grows as far North as Cooktown.

    Euge

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    From Original post ...

    However, much older wood wood has been and is being dug out in the North Is. of New Zealand. its a softwood called Bog Kauri. Some is C-dated at at least 50,000 years, the limit of carbon dating. What is amazing is the quality of its durable wood and the large slabs that are still milled for furniture, table tops and wood crafs. Limited quantities make their way out of NZ, (here its is below) Its true colour is a honey brown. its generally soft and feautureless, but some figured wood is occassionally found (see below)

    Interestingly, Kauri is pronounced Ka-uri by locals and Ma-ori

    I include (below) a pic of a block of BOG Piruri a minor forest hardwood (I think) that also some thousands of years in teh bog. It shows nice coluors, a greyish-green with fine rays when cut on the quarter. I'd love to see some Bog Rewarewa if anyone has any to show.

    These were obtained during an IWCS meeting and tour of the North Island recently ... IWCS has many benefits!

    Bog Kauri.jpg Bog kauri .jpg

    Above: figured block of Bog Kauri from New Zealand

    Bog Piruri.jpg

    Abobe block of quarter-sawn Bog Piruri from Nth Is of NZ

  11. #10
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    Great information Euge! The qualities of each are so unique. I assume that all of them are quite hard now and that working them would dull edges quickly? On your inspections of each piece, does there appear to be a buildup of silica, dirt etc in the pores of each timber?

    I love the curiosity factor, keep them coming!

  12. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by jw2373 View Post
    Great information Euge! The qualities of each are so unique. I assume that all of them are quite hard now and that working them would dull edges quickly? On your inspections of each piece, does there appear to be a buildup of silica, dirt etc in the pores of each timber?

    I love the curiosity factor, keep them coming!
    Hi JW,

    Yes, the qualities of these wood are SO variable in so many ways. Although they darken (mostly from minerals absorbed from the water (eg Iron which react with tannins in some woods like eucalypts) it does not seem to make them much harder or or denser or harder to cut. Some may have increased silica levels , but I have tested these or for silica. These are all wood ... It takes Millions of years and usually under different conditions (alkaline I think, not acidic) for mineralisation to ultimately cause "petrifcation" (to turn them to stone). This is the first stage, taking hundreds and thousands of years. The old softwood is Millions of years old and still wood! But it was buried in humic acid, from vegetation breakdown, in material above just above a brown coal bed

    Euge

    PS: I have always been driven by curiosity

  13. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Saxton View Post
    We stayed with a Dairy farmer in a B&B (back in the 80's) in the very north of NZ who gave me a piece of (Bog)Swamp Kauri when I said I was doing Woodturning at the time.Can't for the life of me find it now I know I have not used it,He reckoned on it being very old according to the source he got it from.
    I know that they are still sourcing very old timber from swamp regions over there as I believe they may be doing in Tassie.
    Sorry John, I overlooked your post.
    If you don't find your piece, and you buy more wood in future from me, remind to include some Bog kauri. You have a new source!
    Euge

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    Yes it is wood, just very old blackened wood. I picked it up off a wide gravel bed on Wallaby Creek in the middle of the dry and was going to use it for firewood then when I broke the piece (about 1800 x 400) in half I could see that it was jet black inside. I will post a few pics.

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    Last edited by Toymaker Len; 8th March 2019 at 11:58 AM. Reason: photo repetition

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    Thanks for posting the pic Len. A nice find for sure!
    They are hard to describe without pics. May be a Euc of a local species? Dunno would have to look at it more closely with my wood id group.

    You offered some and after seeing pics, I would sure like a piece of that wood to examine and have in my collection, even as an oversized IWCS sample ... say 170 x 80 x 15+ mm or bigger for offcuts & microscopy.

    I would be happy to pay for it, or trade if I can.

    Cheers Euge

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