Thread: teatree

Hi Peter
When I was younger living on Flinders Island many of the wooden dingeys etc had knees made from natural bends of timber, blackwood was popular find a branch with right angle splid down the middle and you have a pair. the same works eith the root section take a root ball and slice to have section of trunk and root forming the elbow knee whatever. When the Herons Creek to Port Macquarie section of highway was being built a lot of the blackbutt stumps some 3-4 foot in diameter were shiped to Western Australia for knees in the replica sailing ship Endevour? I think.

Cheera Tony

how big do you want them I have a few, biggest problem is the way it distorts when drying. It shrinks excessively in some areas and not in others and tends to warp quite badly. I recently donated some to a local woodworking group. It is a beautiful timber as far as grain and figure go but getting anything of any great size that doesn't destroy itself is hard. It is quite similar in a lot of ways to peppercorn tree.

I have found that even when it has dried for a reasonable period you cut it and it moves again.

any way this said I have some if you want some.

Yes knees from Tea Tree roots, my family used to cut and sell them when I was a kid. My Grandfather, Great Uncle and Great Grandfather used to cut them around the Myall Lakes (NSW) before the National Parks took over. They used to cut them out of the trees without killing the trees, hard back breaking work. I remember seeing dozens of them lined up drying. I guess you have to cut them wider than you want and once dry trim and straighten. Like Travis said, it is notorius for splitting. Hmm thought, if you can find one big enough you could maybe microwave them, could help stablise them.

What type of Teatree and what size are we talking about here

The ones my family used to cut were from Paper Bark, Tea Tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia . The knees were from 150 x 300 to 600 x 1000 and from 25mm thick to 75mm to suit all size boats.

Originally Posted by Claw Hama

The ones my family used to cut were from Paper Bark, Tea Tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia . The knees were from 150 x 300 to 600 x 1000 and from 25mm thick to 75mm to suit all size boats.

Thanks Craw...just got back from a Google on the name quinquenervia, that brought up Wiki and it's info suggests that quinquenervia has many uses but no mention of boat building except that it doesn't mind a soaking. If it's anything like the Teatree I know of it'd also be good when a bit of spring in the wood is needed.

Yep saplings used to make great slip rails, tent posts etc, It likes the water, around the lakes they grow in the edge of the water and a lot of the time the roots are exposed and awash in water. Quite hard, as we said splits and as firewood, lots of smoke and stings your eyes.

Hmm, some of those long roots would make great legs for the leaf table.

Originally Posted by Claw Hama

Hmm, some of those long roots would make great legs for the leaf table.

Yeah I reckon you'd win them over from Anodised metal or whatever it was