Thread: I need to choose some timber for a bathroom bench

I'd be looking at a naturally oily wood. Your preference for lighter timbers rules out many, such as merbau, but where do you draw the line to define "lighert?"

Bleaching a cheaper, darker timber is always a possibility. And for most oily timbers you need to remove surface oils before applying a finish coat anyway.

My choice would be Spotty Gum heartwood, it's naturally oily and varies from a brown to a light honey colour. It's relatively abundant and should be at the cheaper end of the scale. It also tends to have... what some would call defects but I prefer to call character.

Then there are timbers such as Tallowood. Pricier, but they tend to have a more even, homogenous grain.

American ash? Easy to work, light coloured, plentiful.

I need a similar sized seat in our bathroom. I was thinking of Oak . Not really that oily or light .

$1000 for enough Huon to do that size !

We have a local hardwood around here used for fencing . Yellow stringy bark. Its light coloured beautiful stuff. And cheap as its cut wet. I let some dry in the shed and started using it. Much nicer and finer than Vic ash.
Getting a local hardwood and letting it sit before use could be a good way to go if time permits Like Skew's Spotted Gum suggestion. Just make sure the base is wide to prevent the stool falling over. It'l be heavy.
I did that once picking up a long 2.1M stool to shift it. It slipped and landed on my big toe. It's never looked the same since.

Rob

Sycamore, Maple or Beech

Thanks all.

I like the sound of spotted gum. How easy it to work with? This bench will have some fiddly bits.

I should have written 'bathroom vanity', Rob - it's not a bench for sitting on. The Huon was $158 plm for 285 x 32mm. A bit less than I thought, actually. I need a decent amount of it hence the $1,000 total. Of course Huon has a pretty subtle grain, but it's so nice to work with.

Sycamore looks interesting. I'll see if I can fine some to look at.

This is what I need to make:

Vanity.pdf