Thread: Queensland spotted gum?

It depends on the size/age of the tree.

I'm used to much lighter Spotted Gum, like this bench top,

FinishedBench1.jpg

This is about the darkest I've milled it.
IMG_1590.JPG

Hi Bob. That's what I am used too, a much browner type of grain. The guy I got it from milled it himself so I am thinking that something else got mixed in. Hard to tell weathered grey apart

That looks like spotted gum I am used to working with (step treads and decking). I got a heap of the old timber from Shorncliffe Pier and was told it was spotted gum, which also looks like that.

Hi P. Thanks for that

Yes, like many woods, the colour & density varies with where it grew & the particular clone of the species. I think SG is possibly one of the more variable woods, it can be anything from a very dark brown to almost white. The stuff that grows on the stony ridge near our place is like cast-iron to work with, but Bushmiller gave me a piece of nicely figured SG from his block in NSW, it was very pale and the most workable piece of SG I've ever struck - no wonder we had a difference of opinion on SG!

This is a bench I made for my brother a few years ago. The wood is all SG (by appearance & odour), which I retrieved from a skip during some renovations at the place where I was working. I'm pretty certain it's all SG (there was a little bit of tallow-wood mixed in with it which I used on the vise slides), and as you can see, the colour is very varied (the top has been oiled in the second pic.) :

14.jpg Top complete.jpg

To repeat myself yet again, colour is about the least reliable identifier for many woods...
Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

To repeat myself yet again, colour is about the least reliable identifier for many woods...
Cheers,

& density, aroma, ...... Small samples can give quite skewed calculations for density etc.

There are so many (environmental??) variables that determine the particular character of a specimen.

At the Maleny Wood Expo I was discussing this subject with Morris Lake wrt to Australian Red Cedar and how it has quite distinguishing traits and particularly aroma depending upon its source region. We also noticed similar distinguishing traits with Northern Silky Oak, so much so that one could tell if it came from the Windsor Tableland, Atherton Tableland, Innisfail or the Daintree.

Not to mention the similar species with similar characteristics that are grouped under one commercial "trade name." i.e. E. citriodora, E. maculata, E. henryi as Spotted Gum.

Yep, there is bound to be clonal variation in any species that has a disjunct distribution. I'm not sure I could distinguish "cedars" (Toona sp.) from different localities - all the cedar I've worked with had the same "class" of odour, though some were stronger than others (which I would have put down to how long since it was cut). You are getting into the realm of "fine noses" Moby, the sort that can pick the region of a wine from a sniff & a taste. I can pick a shiraz from a cabernet on a good day, but I would not rely on getting it right more than half the time...

I know there are distinct clones of camphor laurel (see here) with different chemical composition

A quote from the site linked to; "There is variation between trees in the presence and relative abundance of particular chemicals, allowing recognition of a number of forms, chemotypes, characterised by their chemical composition. The two main chemotypes present in Australia are the 'camphor' and 'cineole' types; the 'camphor' type is considered to be the dominant chemotype in the Northern Rivers region of NSW."

I've come across the "cineole" type a couple of times, it has a more pungent & somewhat less pleasant odour than the "camphor" type - I reckon I can pick those pretty reliably....

Cheers,

Thanks IanW and MT. I did check the plane shavings for odour and couldn't smell anything. Sawdust didn't give away anything either (but I'm not in the habit of sniffing sawdust too closely). I know that colour can vary and this is only a sample of one and you are all working from a photo........