Thread: Looking for source of New Guinea rosewood North of Brisbane

Hi OB,
you can try Trevor Gaskell (TG Creations) at Burpengary. Mob.0403496403 - That's if he hasn't retired......
Regards,
Ross

Phone a few joineries in your area. I bought NGR from my local joinery but your mileage may vary.

Originally Posted by jazzy69

Hi OB,
you can try Trevor Gaskell (TG Creations) at Burpengary. Mob.0403496403 - That's if he hasn't retired......
Regards,
Ross

I picked up a lathe from him recently and his shed stock levels after the Maleny woodshow seem replenished and ready to go again

Wow. I wasn't expecting a response that quickly, or a solution that convenient. However, today being a Sunday, and tomorrow being New Years Day, I will obviously not be able to try out this option for a few days, but now at least I have an option! Thanks guys.

Originally Posted by oldBruce

I need four stringers (at least 90x45 in section, but larger would be even better) and at least 1800 long.

Saw mills won't be able to assist as NGR is not imported into Oz as billets or logs generally.

One thing in your favour is that NGR is typically imported as packs of rough sawn boards in the 90 to 250 mm wide x 50 mm thick range. Larger sizes are more difficult to source. So any furniture maker, or solid wood cabinet shop that handles NGR will almost certainly have stock similar to what you require.

NGR has been difficult to source in recent time and last I checked (Feb 2023) it was $4800 + GST per m3 per pack lot ( you purchase the whole pack) from the usual wholesalers.

Hmmm. I don't really have a use for a whole cube pack (and couldn't afford it anyway). But doing some simple maths, at that price and factoring in a mark-up cost for the original buyer breaking up the pack, it seems that these stringers could be a little more expensive than justified by the bench I am putting them on. Is there another, cheaper wood that is a similar colour and generally available?

Originally Posted by oldBruce

...... Is there another, cheaper wood that is a similar colour and generally available?

TBH, I don't think you'll find anything much cheaper, and NGR would be hard to match with any local woods. If a perfect match isn't required, Tassie oak/Vic ash can have a similar medium-coarse grain structure & if you are good at staining (I'm certainly not!!) you could possibly fake it well enough that it wouldn't be too obvious to a casual observer.

Dontcha love these 'simple' jobs that end up costing you twice as much time & grief as making a new article from scratch!?

Cheers,

Thanks Ian: re the wood: I suspected as much, and unfortunately, staining is not really an option for this one, so I guess I will just grit my teeth and pay my money.

And yes, this IS one of those jobs where it would have been easier to start from scratch. But a widening group of relatives has discovered (from a slightly talkative spouse) that I can identify one end of a chisel from the other end (most of the time), and they accept her assurances that I can fix any old piece of discarded junk that they find at an op shop or on the side of the road. My rule to date has been that I will look at most things that do not contain chipboard or MDF, but I think I will have to be more discriminating in future requests.

What kind of dimensions are you after for NGR?

From first post:

Originally Posted by oldBruce

..... I need four stringers (at least 90x45 in section, but larger would be even better) and at least 1800 long....

Originally Posted by IanW

From first post:

Doh….thanks

oldbruce,
Hope you had some luck finding the NGR.

I picked up about 1/4 cube approx 10 years ago from a bloke on this forum but haven't done anything with it.

Unfortunately I am on the south west side of Brisbane and a bit far from you. Some of the bigger pieces I have are

150x50x2100
150x50x1500
130x50x1000
100x50x1300

These are only ones I can measure from the stack and I have other odd lengths as well

RW 1.jpg RW 2.jpg RW 3.jpg

Hi Scott. Thanks very much. So far, I have not found the stringers I need at a price that I can justify based on the end-value of the finished item - especially since it is for a relative who is (putting it mildly) frugal (and will certainly not be paying me for labour!). And I go through the South West of Brisbane around once a fortnight - although unfortunately usually early evening.
So I would love to come take a look at what you have. From what you have listed, only the 2100 sounds useful, but I would hope to be able to get two stringers from it, so it is certainly a useful start. If you wouldn't mind, could you please private message me with a mobile number, and we can make arrangements for a suitable time. Cheers, OB

Grain & Colour

NGR1.jpg