Thread: Raintree??? Bowl and Platter

very nice, nice grain

Originally posted by Little Festo
Is this Raintree??

Yeap, I have heaps of it, none spalted like that though.

Thanks Cliff. I meant to add a few extra images but the "system" was really slow yesterday. I also turned a platter from a crotch. Heres a close-up of the inside of the platter.

Peter.

Here's the platter.

Peter

very nice pieces peter,good grain.I to would like to now what timber it is,,any idea's cliff?

Originally posted by 0zwood2003
...... would like to now what timber it is,,any idea's cliff?

Yeap, it was in the header of the post, Raintree.
I understand that it is an Albisia (?) of some sort.
I is not native to Oz but it grows VERY well in the tropics &
has been planted as street & park trees in a lot of towns around North Queensland.
I have some blocks of it in the shed & I have some finished items.
I will dig something up & take a photo of it.

It's quite figurative, classified hardwood at a guess or am I wrong?
Very attractive with the grain congiguration.

Cheers

Yes a hardwood related to wattles ie Pea flamily

Originally posted by John Saxton
It's quite figurative, classified hardwood at a guess or am I wrong?....

Errr, I dunno.

The internet says...
ALBIZIA saman (Mimosoideae) "Monkeypod," "Rain tree"
A large leguminous tropical tree (Albizia saman or Samanea saman) of tropical America belonging to the family Leguminosae, the leaves of which fold together in cloudy weather and in darkness. Rain trees may attain heights of 80 ft (24 m) with a branch spread of up to 100 ft (30 m). These flat-topped trees are widely cultivated throughout the tropics as shade trees for such crops as coffee and cacao. Their edible pods are used chiefly for stock feed. The durable wood has a deep, rich color and is used for furniture.

I have made some things out of it.
It cuts OK but the endgrain picks out real easy.
It sands real good but.
You can make a good salad bowl in a hurry if you rough turn it with a gouge & do a quick final cut with 40 or 60 grit disk on an angle grinder. Finish it off with a bit of 120 then 240 grit & slap a coat of edible oil on it..... the anglegrinder stage makes a mess of the shed though.

Some pieces have a brown stain through them that doesn't seem to follow the grain & it can look a bit oddball like as if you spilt something on it.

A friend of mine queried if this was actually Raintree. I got a few branches from our yardies at work that was Raintree and just as Cliff said - the end grain really did trear out - even with a sharp chisels. The branches used for the pieces above had very little tearout in the end grain, in fact it cut very smooth also my friend said that he reacts to Raintree shavings/dust but this didn't effect him. May be the spaulting/sitting out in the weather for a couple of wet season effected the timber??? Another suggestion was that it might be Teak as a few trees were planted around Darwin. ?? The description of the tree though is as Cliff said - Huge.

Anyway, regardless of what it is, it's nice wood, turns well and I've got quite a few bits, just hope another branch or two comes down in the next storm.


Peter

G'day.

If it was a big tree & it has been down for a while, it could also be a bit of mango although that is usually lighter in colour & tends to go mouldy with very dark, blotchy stains.

The pic looks like Raintree.