Brush Box

**ozwinner** · 24th March 2004, 05:20 PM

Hi all
I went into my local M10 last week and saw all this beautiful 90mm Brush Box flooring, it was all bent and dirty and look liked it had been out in the yard for a while. So I figured it needed a new owner, someone who could care for it, and look after it, nurture it, much like a poor wickle puppy .Awhhhh.

When I said I was prepared to adopt their beautiful flooring, they told me the price, "$5.50 per M mate", ...........................WHAT THE...........naaaaah, no way, I dont love it that much.

So as the week went by I keep calling in, looking at this poor forlorn flooring that nobody loved, well I did had visiting rights after all.
It just kept looking at me with those big sad eyes.

.
Booh Hoo, pass me another tissue, thanks love.
Where was I, Oh yeah.

Well there is a happy ending to this sad tail, I picked up the flooring today.
I got me self over 200 linial M for $250.
Like Confusias said, " time and a drip of water ( I'm the drip ) will wear away a mountain.
I dont know if Confusias actualy said that, I made that bit up.
Now I have 200 M of beautiful timber to play with........suckers.

Oh yeah almost forgot, its mostly fiddle back too.

Cheers, Al the Persistant

**Baz** · 24th March 2004, 07:47 PM

Good one Al, never seen a bit of fiddle back Brush Box. I believe Brush Box is fairly hard on tools because of the amount of silica in it, anyone had much experience with Brush Box.
Cheers
Barry

**Arron** · 25th March 2004, 12:22 AM

I've been making a bedroom suite out of brush box for a while now. So far a chair and two bedside tables are completed.

Supposedly it dulls tools but I cant see it - of course not much worries carbide. I havent found myself sharpening planes or chisels much more then normal, but then I havent been doing a lot of hand finishing.

It is also supposed to be very hard to glue as it has some kind of natural wax. I am using AV Syntec's adhesive AV515. It is taking some getting used to. I also did some tests on plain old crosslinked PVA and it did a good job - which is against all advice you will hear. Silica and wax contents may vary with location or growing conditions.

Good brush box is a pleasure to work. It keeps a neat edge and finishes really well. If using varnish on other timbers I usually use from 8 to 10 coats with the first six coats rubbed off completely. With brush box, its a crime to use more then 2 - in fact 1 coat of varnish is all you need for a perfect looking, deep, lustrous job.

I'm afraid I reject the stuff with what looks like fiddleback. I cannot comment on the stuff you bought, but in my experience brush box is prone to interlocked grain which gives a fiddleback appearance but is hard to work and does not finish well. With brush box, you should stick to straight and true grained timber with little run out. I try to use quartersawn. Crown cut is OK where edges are obscured but if the grain runs tangenitally to an edge you will often get natural delaminations. Brush box is a very tall, shaftlike tree so it produces lots of timber with the desired qualities. I know a lot of people dont like the look of quartersawn timber but I think the character of this timber is not complemented by a heavily featured grain pattern.

Another good thing about brushbox is that you can get a man-made board to match. I bought an hmr board veneered in brush box from Brims Boards. This can cut the weight, cost and time of a project.

Arron

**Arron** · 26th March 2004, 10:53 PM

Correction to previous post. I've been doing more hand finishing lately and it is surprising how quickly this timber bluntens the plane iron. The tablesaw seems to be cutting rather slow now too. Still worth it, though.

Arron

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