Thread: What wood is this?

I was going to say one of the she oaks untill I saw the leaf, it is definetly not a casurina as they have segmented green stems with the leaves reduced to small colourless scales at the base of each segment. What you have is probably one of the larger grevillea's like beefwood, Deep red colour, prominant rays etc. However that is an educated guess and you are some way away from the normal range of the two species that are called beefwood (G. striata and G. parallela). Another possibility is woody pear, again dark red/brown prominant rays. That tipped leaf rings a bell somewhere, but I am not sure, I will get back to you on that one. If you really want it identified send it to the CSIRO Forest products identification guy, seriously world class at identifying timber just from slivers.

wow ! interesting grain.

It is like one of the she-oaks/casurina or silky oak/banksia type of grain.
Possibly a desert wood.

Beefwood is probably a good guess but pretty non-specific.

the fact that its kind of soft and waxy discounts a lot of the sheoak/banksiafamily as they are usually pretty hard woods.

the bark could be an indicator.

I think certain areas of WA, such as the SW had more biodiversity than the daintree, like over 2000 diferent species.

Maybe post its here to get more feedback

http://www.aussiewoods.info

or email the guys at Djalimari timbers in Denmark.

http://www.djarilmari.com/
they would know more than i do.

Now I do remember that bit about the tipped leaf, that is a characteristic of the so called "snail" flower grevillea's. Should have thought about that as the rosmarinifolia that we have in the garden spikes you every time you go past it. If I am correct there should be a prominant line along the underside of the leaf, like as though it is rolled up which is what it actually is.

I asked a mate at work who is experience din such matters and is also from WA, this was his reply


John,
I think its some sort of Casuarina, although the bark throws me. Maybe an Acacia by the leaf, but those medullary rays in the wood point to Casuarina...or should I say Allocasuarina now.
Some of the trhe Sheoaks/Riveroaks have wicked colours but sometimes a tendency to split when drying.

Cheers,
Andrew

Have no idea but surely looks pretty stunning to me!!!!O
You guys are too lucky to have all those cool timbers....

Cheers,
Mikko

G'day Mikko

Good to see you from the other side of the world.
I would have thought you would be the one with cool timbers........

Al

Hey Dan,

Not a problem identifying the wood but in order to do it I need your whole supply to scrutinise by turning!
No idea mate
Have a good one.

Might be a hakea. Don't know the common names, but there are heaps of them. They can have a corky bark and I think always have strong medullary rays. Leaf looks right I think. Timber looks great when first cut but could dry lightweight and pithy.

Originally Posted by gatiep

Hey Dan,

Not a problem identifying the wood but in order to do it I need your whole supply to scrutinise by turning!
No idea mate
Have a good one.

Now Now Joe

You know that you can have some to play with but even I am not dumb enough to give it all to you...or am I ...it does look a lot like the Silky Oak that came with it though...

Dan

Al,

Yes....we have lots of wood but very little variety.
Also, our ummmm....severe....climate makes sure that most of the species do not reach sizes useful to us turners. There are few good species though...but it seems that you have dozens and dozens. Also, I'm fond of wood that is darker and more rich in figure, most of our "good" species do not really have this unless you let them spalt or manage to score a burr.
I'm not really complaining as I have endless stock of timber in my forest....still, more variety would be nice....and larger blanks.

Cheers,
Mikko

I agree with JB and will say it's some sort of hakea. The needle point on the leave gives it away. The seed pod of most hakaes is tear drop shaped, very woody, about 3 to 5 cm long, 2 to 3 cm in diameter and splits in two when ripe (usually caused by fire).

Originally Posted by Bruce Micheal

I agree with JB and will say it's some sort of hakea. The needle point on the leave gives it away. The seed pod of most hakaes is tear drop shaped, very woody, about 3 to 5 cm long, 2 to 3 cm in diameter and splits in two when ripe (usually caused by fire).

All of the hakea examples I have seen have flat leaves, bark with a fine furrowed pattern and pale timber, which this timber has none of, but my experience is mostly restricted to the east coast species. The exception being "corkbark", a sample boot in the bungendore woodworks gallery, which listed its distribution as being from WA but it was also pale.

My summary would be that it is definetly not an Allocasurina, the leaves are wrong for that, the Hakea/grevillea option is probably the go. Sorry it is not more definite than that.

Originally Posted by PAH1

All of the hakea examples I have seen have flat leaves, bark with a fine furrowed pattern and pale timber, which this timber has none of, but my experience is mostly restricted to the east coast species. The exception being "corkbark", a sample boot in the bungendore woodworks gallery, which listed its distribution as being from WA but it was also pale.

My summary would be that it is definetly not an Allocasurina, the leaves are wrong for that, the Hakea/grevillea option is probably the go. Sorry it is not more definite than that.

You are right in that some/most hakeas have flat leaves. Some from the east coast such as Hakea gibosa have long needle like leaves.The following link has a Western Australian hakea with needle like leaves as well.
http://farrer.riv.csu.edu.au/ASGAP/h-cor.html

If it's hakea maybe it's the one called needlewood (not ivory needlewood) shown here:http://ajh-knives.com/xylo-1.html . Wood colour sounds right, and it comes from your side of the country