Woody Pears?

**Crackerboy** · 10th March 2010, 01:28 AM

Guys,

My neighbour tells me that a tree I don't recognise on my block is a woody pear, I dont know what the true name would be, all I can tell you is that it produces a "fruit" that looks like a wooden pear!!!!!! The leaves are very similar to the british holly.... It also seems to send up suckers very readily from what I have seen around the base.

Any details would be appreciated, as would the qualities of the timber for working with etc. Also has anyone used the "fruit" for anything!!!!

I'm going to have to remove a 3m specimen to make way for some landscaping and if it's a useful material I'll attempt to season it rather than chuck it on the woodburner!

Cheers

**artme** · 10th March 2010, 08:27 AM

The Hakea is sometimes referred to as "Woody Paer". Kits of Australian Pen blanks from Carba-Tec often contain one of these blanks.

My memory of Hakea is one of prickly leaves and beautiful fluffy ball like flowers of red.

**Wizened of Oz** · 10th March 2010, 04:11 PM

The WA Woody Pear is Xylomelum occidentale. It is one of the Proteaceae family along with Hakeas, Banksias, Grevilleas etc.
Should show the medullary ray structure that is typical of the family.

**stuffy** · 10th March 2010, 05:00 PM

I love it.

Woody Pear has the most beautiful deep red heartwood and creamy sapwood.
The ray figure and grain pattern are simply stunning. Better than any grevillia robusta (silky oak) or sheoak I've seen.

Drawbacks are:
very open grained
very soft
borers love the sapwood
probably difficult to season in large sizes

It's very nice to turn, the simplest natural edge vase looks great. But I've never seen any furniture made with it, probably due to difficulty in seasoning.

Why don't you cut a branch off and check it out?
If you don't want it I'll gladly take it off your hands!

**Crackerboy** · 10th March 2010, 11:04 PM

Thanks Wizened,

My son showed me the wikipedia site so I found out what it was!!

Thanks anyway!

Thanks Stuffy for the offer to help me dispose of it, I'm gonna leave it in place for now but once I'm ready to play lumberjack I'll give you a shout and you're be welcome to come and grab a section!! I see your pretty close to me as well eh!

I do have a stump about 1.5m tall from either a casuarina or a sheoak which is still standing but will be removed at some point, may need some advice on planking it.

**scuttle** · 13th March 2010, 08:29 AM

The fruit from the tree burn extremely well and quite hot almost like briquettes.

Scuttle

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