Thread: Turpentine

Yep, hard on the gear, ahs the highest content of silica in the the cell structure of any timber I've dealt with. Is closely related to Brushbox has similar properties, comes in several different colours/shades unfortunately not much of the deep red stuff makes its way out of the hands of those who find it. Nice timber great for in water use as the marine borer has issues with the silica, high in extractives and tannins will cause staining if still green and reacts with steel by turning the steel instantly black, suffers from "brownstain" rot and is a group 3 strength(still stronger than 90% of anything else), but retains its durability class 1 ranking.
Have fun be preparedto do heaps of sharpening

Me thinks i'll leave it in the paddock then. Haven't learned the Zen of sharpening yet.

Wot E. maculata said.
The high silica content is why it's so good for wharf piles - quickly dulls the teeth of marine wood-chompers as well as plane blades.

We had lots of it on the farm where I grew up (N. Qld), but found few uses for it - too hard to dry in anything but small bits, and takes forever. About the only uses I've found are for virtually indestructible cutting-boards, and it makes good screws for hand clamps, but it is character-building to turn the blanks! You can put a nice surface on it with scrapers.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

- too hard to dry in anything but small bits, and takes forever.

I tried to use it a few times but IMO it is not a suitable timber for fine furniture. Because it is too hard to dry as IanW says every piece I've ever tried to machine down has checks -- I'm sure they don't impact its usefulness much for wharfs and beams, but they sure don't enhance your furniture. I guess you could dry it real carefully, but then you'd just end up with a check-free but still uninteresting piece of timber.

Qw

Ok. Thanx for the info guys. I reckon i'll give it a miss then.

One of the best eight seater dining tables I have ever seen had a 50mm thick turpentine top .Took ten men and a blue heeler to shift it .
An old timer told me turpentine used to be called ' INCH A NIGHT ' apparently thats how much it would shrink when first cut green .

veebull