Recycling at its best

**Gabriel** · 30th December 2015, 09:28 PM

Ok, I'll start by apologizing as I know its near on impossible to pick timber types from photos, especially when its only grain etc to go by, but I was hoping with a little background info it may lend itself to an answer.

I am currently demolishing the back half of a heritage listed home in Mont Albert. Lovely looking old home. We have found newspapers in a couple of the walls that say the previous renovation happened in 1994, but I suspect the house was built in the 40's or 50's. Most of the frame is OB with some oregon dotted around the place. Horse hair plaster, with some larthen plaster about as well (I like getting dusty/dirty in 40oC days)....

The old outhouse was still original. The easiest way to tell this was the AC sheeting. Safely removed by the pros, onto the demo. I pulled up some of the floorboards, and they looked to be a deep red timber, very dense. I suspect redgum, but I've never heard of redgum being used for flooring. It is all tongue and groove, about 85mm boards (though in those days I guess it would have been 3 inches). I guess it could also be jarrah, but I didn't think it would have been viable for it to be shipped in from WA in those days. The rest of the house has baltic pine floorboards so I can't really go by any of that.
20151230_183915.jpg
Anyways, I took the few I could salvage home, gave them a spin on the jointer and would love to hear other peoples opinions on what they could be???

(metho to help with the grain)
20151230_184043.jpg 20151230_184030.jpg
I also managed to save a few of the skirting boards (we kept a few in case we need to do some patching elsewhere in the house, but if they aren't used, I'll nab them as well) which appear to be Red Cedar. Maybe I'll get into some box making, or find someone with a use for it.
20151230_184120.jpg 20151230_183923.jpg
Just thought I'd share. Keeping my eye open for any other gems

Cheers

Gab

**KBs PensNmore** · 30th December 2015, 10:56 PM

Any chance of a photo up closer, bit hard to tell at distance. Red Gum is usually a curly type grain, and Jarrah straight, that's how I usually tell the difference.
Kryn

**cava** · 31st December 2015, 12:11 AM

Is it possible that it is Bluegum?

**Gabriel** · 31st December 2015, 09:40 AM

That's a great thought cava!! It has a bit of a curly grain like redgum, but 2 boards have distinct colour variations to dry light, almost white which would give a strong indication to blue gum!! (I have some new boards to compare to)....

I'll go with that. I'll pull the proper camera out kb, instead of relying on the phone....

Pulled a 125x125mm x 3m post off the job today that looks to be something (Dark red again) bloody solid and nice. Painted white at the moment but once I get it cleaned up I'll take some shots. I love demolition sometimes! !

Thanks for the help guys

**cava** · 31st December 2015, 11:34 AM

Do I win a prize.

A lot of houses back in the day used Bluegum in NSW - not sure about here though.

**Gabriel** · 31st December 2015, 11:59 AM

Originally Posted by cava

Do I win a prize.

Sure, what would you do with some old blue gum floor boards I've recently had the chance to aquire?

**cava** · 31st December 2015, 02:04 PM

Make a blanket box.

**Gabriel** · 31st December 2015, 02:32 PM

If you're serious, I quite often have left over floorboards from jobs.... can quite easily get some to you if they would be useful (as long as I'm not driving to rye or something. ... though we are building the BIL house in St Andrews beach at the moment)

**cava** · 31st December 2015, 02:36 PM

Thanks for the offer Gabriel. I am in Tyabb, but I would come to you if that suits.

**ian** · 31st December 2015, 03:22 PM

Could be Karri -- Eucalyptus diversicolor

Colour – The heartwood varies from rich reddish browns through to pale pinks with the sapwood being a clearlydistinguishable light yellow.
Grain – Considerable interlocked grain may be a feature

try the burning splinter test
Burning Splinter Test – A test performed on matchstick-sized splinters to distinguish between anatomically similar timbers such as brush box and turpentine or jarrah and karri.

A match size splinter [of Jarrah] burns to charcoal without ash, while a Karri splinter burns to a white ash.

Over 200 samples of <bad id="10259" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify;">jarrah</bad> drawn from different sources, and 150 of karri similarly obtained, were examined. In all cases the splinters from the karri samples burnt well, glowed for a long time, and formed a very definite white ash. The splinters from the <bad id="10260" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify;">jarrah</bad> samples did not burn well, did not glow, and in the majority of cases left no ash. In a few instances, a very fine black ash was left, but this could never be mistaken for the white ash left on burning karri.
Reference: Research, Council For Scientific And Industrial. (2013). pp. 615-6. Pamphlets (Vol. 1). London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1918)

**Gabriel** · 31st December 2015, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by cava

Thanks for the offer Gabriel. I am in Tyabb, but I would come to you if that suits.

Probably not enough of any 1 species for a blanket box, but if you make smaller boxes etc they you're in luck....

**cava** · 31st December 2015, 08:33 PM

Ohh well, probably best to give it a miss at the moment Gabriel.

Thanks for the offer anyway.

George

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