Thread: hardest/toughest wood ever

Originally Posted by Miltzy

Any of the Arid timbers from WAs goldfields are tough but gimlet would have to take the cake. I gave Forest Products Commision a hand to mill some green logs and it even had them scratching there heads on how to cut it.

But still great timbers, expecially when using someone elses machines

Mate head NORTH!! The hardest timbers Ive touched have to be the buggars out in the north west corner of the Great Sandy Desert... bloody twig takes a friggin 100T Dumpy to crack... note I did NOT say break I said crack as in a hairline fracture!! :eek: bluntens a brand spanking new carving jack with one swipe

When I head back next week I will gather some to bring back with me just small stuff mind and will try to see whats beneath the dusky exterior... somehow!!

er yes the whitegum is the wandoo in WA ....hardest wood i have tried is the Boree (Acacia pendula)

most of the ironwoods, ironbark, dead finish, brigalows, mulga, gidgee can be really hard brigalow i think was the hardest on the banksan along the grain..

cheeeeers

I regularly turn Doolan, Boree, Brigalow and Red Bohenia (got a stockpile laid in when Gustec went toes up. ) and they're hard woods, sure, but they still have nothing on the really old timbers I've turned.

Then again, as has already been said, they hold their moisture well and take forever to cure. Part'n'parcel of being desert woods I s'pose. So I guess there's an element of green-turning in 'em... and they'd probably make the old timbers look soft as butter if they were of an equivalent age. :eek:

penda (sic?) is the hardest wood I've come across here in FNQ, sometimes found in some of the old houses here...very hard stuff

Whats the hardest wood... look at Lignums name, Lignum Vitae(spellin?)
Not that I've ever worked any, but you find it used in old machines as a bearing surface, some old windmills use it as a bearing, had a fair bit of nautical usage too.(going by what I've read on the net)

Originally Posted by Harry72

Whats the hardest wood... look at Lignums name, Lignum Vitae(spellin?)
Not that I've ever worked any, but you find it used in old machines as a bearing surface, some old windmills use it as a bearing, had a fair bit of nautical usage too.(going by what I've read on the net)

Harry, I am not sure Lignum Vitae is the hardest, I believe it is the densest, and is self oiling/lubricating somehow which makes it attractive for bearings in windmills, ships and submarines.

This link has some great facts - one of which states that Snakewood is the hardest known timber.

Hardest timber commercially availiable= Lignum Vitae
Toughest timber commercially availiable= Grey Ironbark

Completely different criteria
hardness- glass is extremely hard, not very tough
toughness-rubber quite tough, not very hard

Lignum resists cutting, compression etc but doesn't take shock as well as you'd expect, also like our very own tallowwood it is self lubricating in a slipper bearing situation, combined with the ability to resist crushing pressure is excellent fot high load bearings, yes I am a fan, but I do so admire our tougher timbers equally.

See what happens when you have dinner between writing and posting, Groggy

Originally Posted by E. maculata

See what happens when you have dinner between writing and posting, Groggy

Yeah, that happens to me all the time with the Tatts numbers

Originally Posted by Harry72

Whats the hardest wood... look at Lignums name, Lignum Vitae(spellin?)

Harry Originaly i ment my nic to be Lignun as in the soft fiber structure, but a slip of the finger resulted in the M being pushed and that was the moment i went all hard

Originally Posted by Lignum

Iv heard stories where some have been dead for 30 or 40 years and still have bound water in the cells

I remember watching a show about harvesting timber from the WA goldfields area and they mentioned exactly this. Apparently a HUGE problem with harvesting timber is that they have very little time between cutting the timber down, milling it and drying it because the trees effectively case harden when they are cut effectively trapping the moisture inside.

Originally Posted by rowie

ive got some hoop pine & cypress pine(callitris) that were hit &felled by lightning. Made them so much harder!
And the hoop stinks like pig #####!is that normal? came from Casino NSW.

No it's not normal. I've worked with Hoop for 10 years and it the plantation stuff has no real "smell". I have machined some virgin growth hoop that was a bit funny on the nose but didn't stink like you are suggesting, but anything's possible!
Another interesting thing about hoop is that its not always creamy coloured like normal perception of pine. We get some boards in that are almost orange in colour from the bands of compressed growth. These bands are a lot harder than normal and can twist bend and warp like made when you cut it.
Quick Rant - A lot of people go on about how boring pine is, but they have never seen some of the beautiful grain patterns and colours the hoop pine can have (not always but can). I'm starting to collect some of this featured timber and one day I hopr to make a few little items out of it to show how good it can be!

hi all - I'm new...

My TAFE teacher had some Lignum Vitae that he intended on doing something with but after dressing it he gave up on doing anything else. He said you need to use metal working tools on it because it's so hard and it was as heavy as metal, much heavier than ironbark or any of the commercially available timbers I deal with every day at work.

out of curiosity dose anyone know how heavy metal is?