Thread: Banksia and Blackbutt

Silent,

I am also interested and would like to see some pictures too.

Darren,

Just out of interest, are you getting the logs cut into boards or just slabbed?

Craig

Mostly 8x2 and some 4x2 boards, up to about 2.6m long. We talked about slabbing some of it but decided against it. The outer layers of the logs are very open grain, almost spongey, so I didn't think it would be suitable for a live edge.

Some of it will be cut into blocks for turning.

I just turned a small piece on mutiple centers to make a presentation trophy for the son's footy coach - you are right the sapwood is very spongey but the heartwood has all that pink and dark brown grain - medulary rays.
Looks great even with the big sapwood/bark bit in the base. A pretty timber

Silentc, I am interested in some, what size are the turning blanks going to be, I am interested in any larger than 8x2.
Cheers
Barry

hi silent

I have used a lot of banksia here in S E Queensland.Taken straight from the tree and slabed shortly after and have always found big splits radiating from the heart out.To me it looks like a very dark red silky oak but i would not like to use it for furniture.You would have to do a lot of work to get rid of the splits..
regards Schaf

Originally Posted by Baz

Silentc, I am interested in some, what size are the turning blanks going to be, I am interested in any larger than 8x2.
Cheers
Barry

Barry,

Only one of 4 trees cut up so far, so what sort of sizes would you like? I was going to get one cut into short lengths about 400mm long and split into two or three slabs. Would that be the kind of thing you're after?

We've been told that it's very nice for counter tops. No good for furniture in general because, as Rocker pointed out, it is a bit weak. I'm planning to use some for my kitchen bench and some of it might find it's way into boxes, tabletops etc, where you don't need the joint strength. It might be too soft though, so will see how it goes.

Here's a couple of pics to give you the idea.

Well it does look rather specco.
The grain also looks rather cranky.
Guess that's a reason for you to buy that Gordon or Nielson plane you've always wanted.

I'm going to dry out an offcut in the microwave and see what it's like cleaned up. Not sure if I'll need the Gordon for it but that wont stop me from using it as an excuse

SilentC those slabs look great, I would be interested in anything from 200mm to 600mm diameter and 50mm to 100mm thick, obviously minimum of splits.
Cheers
Barry

Apologies for taking so long to get back on this. I spent most of the weekend splitting logs and stacking the sawn stuff. Here are some pictures I took tonight of a piece that I dressed up to see what the grain + colour is like. I wet it first to bring the colour out.

This is an offcut from one of the bowl blanks. The problem is that, due to the small size of the two trees and the fact that there was some star cracking already, I couldn't get anything of any great size. There are a couple that are about 400mm square by 100mm but I'm not too sure how they are going to turn out because they were cut a bit close to the pith. I've got quite a bit of smaller stuff down to the 200mm sq. by 50-75mm which will probably be OK. I think I'll let it dry out for a bit to see what happens before I sell any of it.

If you're down this way, you're welcome to drop in and have a look.

SilentC, thanks for the info, I will be down your way in October, will send you a PM first.
Cheers
Barry

Be good if it holds together Mate.

Good Luck

Cheers