Thread: Timber suggestions for coffee table - not too dark or too light

I like the look of spotted gum. The book "Wood In Australia - Types, Properties, and Uses" by Keith Bootle describes the heartwood of spotted gum as being "pale to dark brown or chocolate." If you select the pieces yourself you should be able to choose some mid range stuff that fits what you are aiming for.

How about Blackbutt? Lovely honey tones.

I made one out of grey ironbark with tung oil finish. Came up very nice.

Tom,

This may help. The one on the left is blackbutt, the one on the right is spotted gum.

Both finished with danish oil, which darkened the timber more than shellac or some other finishes.

If you're on the North Shore, you can take your rough timber to DIY DAN's in Mt Kuringai to dimension.

Cheers,

Tex

This may seem a bit odd, but after slapping some casters on the legs of my last coffee table (no masterpiece) we were amazed at the versatility it bought to this humble & common piece of furniture. I reckon the next one I do (after the shed gets built) will have them integrated into the leg design.

You could try Yarra Gum, nice orangy pinky color or Yellow Box. I have both species here at home, if you want pics sing out and I will take some for you

Gidday

I'd pick Mulga if I was looking to make something that 'fits the bill' your looking for.....................can be worked to an extreamly high polish n takes finishes well.

Reckon it'd go very nice with Tung oil n some wax or even a home made dainsh oil

If you could find some ringed mulga then you'd really have something special on your hands

Keep looking you'll probably find the timber your after will find you

Regards Lou

If you are going to be buying at Anagote, get them to show you some of their Chilean myrtle. Also they have a lot of nice black walnut at present.

Have a look at Tas. Myrtle or Blackwood. Blackwood varies considerably from very dark to very light, so you should be able to find something about right.

Also look at Spotted gum or Flooded gum - both nice timbers.

Thanks for all your replies. I investigated further on Sunday and visited a few more furniture shops. Was generally amazed at the lack of quality of some pieces - sloppy machine cut dovetails (why both??) and pine drawers. Couldn't find any shops selling drawers with half blind dovetails - everyone seems to have through dovetails nailed to a front board - why is this - I would have thought it was just as quick to machine half blind dovetails (although I don't have a jig).

Here are a few comments:

Spotted gum - there seemed to be two varieties. The southern variety had a grey/green tinge - not something I wanted, but the queensland variety was close.

Blackbutt - seems to be everywhere. I think there may be just too much contrast in the blackbutt for my liking.

Blackwood - again, seems to be many different varieties. However, was very impressed by the Tasmainian blackwood. Does all blackwood come from tasmainia? This is on the shortlist.

Coolibah - a favourite of swhbo. I thought too red, but seems to be a little lighter than redgum.

Also saw some nice ironbark. Bloody hard to work though? I will head down to the timber yards next weekend and look at some samples. One difficulty I sometimes have is picking what the end colour will look like from the rough sawn bits. Any hints? Next step is the design.....

Cheers,

Tom

There are several spicies of spotted gum and all have slightly different characteristics.
The timber colour can also depend on how and where grown.
I've seen it from creamy, thru pinks and with various casts thru the grain.
I've even seen it a dirty grey brown and yep with a green tinge.

Have a look at red stringybark ( more pink than red).

cheers

Tom
You can check the colour by wiping the board with a wet rag or squirt a bit of water onto the timber. It would be better if you could scrape a fresh surface but you will get a good idea from just wetting the surface.

Blackwood grows in Tasmania and coastal Victoria and NSW. I have found the Tas and Vic timbers to generally be darker while the norther NSW grown timber more often a honey colour.
All come up special when a finish is added especially if there is some fiddleback.

I like the warm reddish brown of Myrtle. It is a hard timber but a fair bit easier to work then some of your other choices.