Thread: Blue Gum

Hi Mapleman,

There's Sydney BG and there's Tassie BG. I don't know about the drying characteristics of the former but there is no hope at all of drying slabs of Tassie BG. It's hard enough to dry carefully quarter sawn Tassie BG to make framing grade standard let alone anything better.


Old Pete

witch blue gum?

Qld Blue Gum,also known as Forest Red Gum.Latin name is Eucalytus Tereticornis.The slabs are 1.5m wide x 4.5 long.Absolute monsters,will post some photos today!

drys pretty well center slabs will crack up the middle. stack them well and all will be fine.

Cheers,at 2 and a half slabs to the sawn cube,they are going to be a bugger to stack!!

Tasmanian blue gum (E Globulus) is a very tough (Janka 10.0) and heavy timber (900 kg/m3) and it is dimensionally stable provided it is strait grained and not interlocked.

It was the timber of choice for the backbone and framing of timber boats until commercial timber boats ceased to be built. It was also used in the planking of heavy commercial vessels where strength and durability were primary concerns, such as Tasmania's famous blue gum clippers of the last half of the 1800's. The ketch May Queen, on display at the Maritime Museum in Hobart was built in 1868 with blue gum planking over spotted gum framing, and after 140+ years is still going strong. Similarly the Maritime Museum's cutter Westward, built in 1947 has celery top pine planking and decking over blue gum framing and ribs. Also, I laminated blue gum sister ribs into my sloop, Leonidas, fifteen years ago and it has worked well.

Boat building requires dimensionally stable timber!

Cheers

Graeme

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Tasmanian blue gum (E Globulus) is a very tough (Janka 10.0) and heavy timber (900 kg/m3) and it is dimensionally stable provided it is strait grained and not interlocked.

It was the timber of choice for the backbone and framing of timber boats until commercial timber boats ceased to be built. It was also used in the planking of heavy commercial vessels where strength and durability were primary concerns, such as Tasmania's famous blue gum clippers of the last half of the 1800's. The ketch May Queen, on display at the Maritime Museum in Hobart was built in 1868 with blue gum planking over spotted gum framing, and after 140+ years is still going strong. Similarly the Maritime Museum's cutter Westward, built in 1947 has celery top pine planking and decking over blue gum framing and ribs. Also, I laminated blue gum sister ribs into my sloop, Leonidas, fifteen years ago and it has worked well.

Boat building requires dimensionally stable timber!

Cheers

Graeme

Thanks for the info,most interesting.Would have thought Blue Gum too heavy for boat building.Cheers

Here are some images of some Blue Gum that we sourced recently,Cheers

Nice slabs. I have found Qld Blue Gum quite stable and well behaved in the drying process. Much better than Sydney Blue gum which requires a bit more care and can collapse badly around the heart.
cheers
Steve