Thread: Qld Box Tree?

Can’t comment as to what type of species but going on the bark etc, it does suggest it is a box species.

Thank you for that.

It will be coming out next week, so within a few days after receiving it, I will than know what it turns like when wet.

Coring will happen inside a month, then a wait for things to dry a bit with hopefully some nice or possibly interesting bowls at the business end of the turning cycle. The upper limbs should do well for spindle turning, at least that is the idea.

Mick.

Its nice wood although it can be abrasive when grown in harsh conditions. However it looks like it was growing in a back yard so its's less likely it would have wanted for water.

Should be some interesting grain where all those branches sprout from .
Ted

BobL, yes it is in a Melbourne backyard so it wouldn't have had too hard a life, we'll see.

Turnerted, I too had noted those possibilities, in fact, this whole tree has me excited to the turning possibilities; been a while since I've been this turned on; pun intended.

The really interesting part is that only a day before my mate rang me, I had dropped into Carbatech to pick up another tin of end sealer. The current virtually empty tin was four years old and the last time I used it, it was very difficult to use. When the tree comes down I'll be there with my tray back ute, end sealer and a wide brush; never been this prepared.

Mick.

Originally Posted by Optimark

If it is in fact a Qld Box tree, does anyone know what it turns like?

The beauty of turning is pretty much every wood is turnable, especially when roughing it out wet.

Mick

I confess I had to look this up, but it appears that Qld Box is the same as Brush Box. Most of the "box" named species in Australia are Eucalypts, but your tree, if it is indeed a Qld Box (it does look as though it could be from your picture and the bark) is Tristania Conferta. This has been an important hardwood used for many purposes including high end flooring. It has a dry density of 900kg/m³. Apparently it has a high silica content so has a harsh effect on edge tools. Straight grained timber is relatively straight forward, but interlocked grain can distort noticeably during drying. If you were drying the timber in boards the recommendation is to increase the stickers (closer together) and keep them thin to reduce air circulation. Plenty of weight on top of the stack was also recommended. This may not be practical for your purpose and green turning. Brush box has a natural wax content so it may polish up on a lathe even without adding anything to it.

I have no personal experience of the timber other than having noticed it makes for very appealing flooring and I have extracted the above information from Bootle's "Wood in Australia" once I realised that QLD Box and Brush Box were one and the same.

Regards
Paul

I dunno. Box trees up this way (Central Qld) tend have a fairly distinct, shiny leaf.

In your attached photo, it has the Box type trunk, but goes smooth like a Gum Top Box.

Eucalyptus moluccana, commonly known as the grey box, gum-topped box or terriyergro, is a medium-sized to tall tree with rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped to barrel-shaped fruit.

I can't see the leaves propery in your photo, so ????

Once again, tree/wood identification is difficult with only one photo. Taxonomy needs a lot more clues than that.

Anyhoo, it is a free wood as you are likely to get. It looks to be a hardwood, so you have not much to lose. If it has a nice tight grain, it will come up nice, and if it has some figure it will be even better. Just might challenge your gouge and sharpening techniques though!

I tried to copy and paste photos, but that did not work.

Cheers,
Alister.

Some interesting information from all and sundry.

The tree is down, has been cut up and end sealed and now the fun begins.

Yesterday at my turning club we took a trunk section and cored it using a bowl corer (bowl saver). It is certainly a hard and dense wood, the lathe being used was struggling a bit, 1100 Watts, the rounded section was 360mm in diameter so not small but certainly not big.

This was someone using their bowl saver for the first time with a little help/guidance from my good self. Possibly tomorrow, I will start my own journey of coring my trunk blanks, the widest of which will be around 450mm in diameter at the base of the tree; I have two of these.

The other three blanks I have are smaller in diameter, around 350mm, so some reasonable bowls could emerge next year at the earliest.

With regard to the leaf shape, I talked again to the owner and now know that the tree was planted almost exactly 50 years ago. Now about the leaves, I quoted the lance shaped leaves to him and this was his reply.

"Possibly lance shaped, but I would call it more of an elongated pear shaped look, but without the indent at the neck of a pear shape." Another thing he mentioned, after questioning about the flowers, was, "it never flowered once in it's life."

As for it's hardness, yesterday it certainly was able to blunt the tools fairly quickly. Which, considering it was super wet, was noticeably quicker than other wet turning I have seen/done. Another aspect was the lack of water being flung for something that was cut less than 16 hours prior to turning and with the end grain sealed. It did fling water, but pretty much nothing like I'm used to seeing and feeling.

I'll get some pictures of my stash tomorrow and maybe I'll be able to show progress pictures through the whole shebang. That is, blanks, wet cored to rough bowls, then after drying, hopefully some finished bowls.

Many thanks for all contributions.

Mick.

Bushmiller, going on your dry weight figure of 900kg per cubic metre, I can certainly tell you that the smaller limbs while wet as anything, were really heavy, and we are talking 300mm lengths by around 250mm diameter.

As for the trunk sections, well I couldn't move them myself, other than to push them (with difficulty) on the tray of the ute. I'll certainly be using the roof mounted block and tackle to get the blanks onto the lathe.

Mick.

Mick

Green density of QLD Box is 1160Kg/m³. Most of the boxes are around this weight when green, but the Tristania species dry at around the 900Kg/m³ mark while the eucalypt species seem to lose less weight during the drying process and end up around 1100Kg/m³. They will all severely test your edge tools!

It may out of interest be worth cutting a regular shaped test piece, measure it for volume, weigh it when green and then again in a years time when dry. you may be able to assess the speices from the result and the percentage loss in weight.

Kitchen scales are good for this and are best set up whyen SWMBO is out of the house. I would suggest a piece 500mm x 100mm x 25mm. Too small will potentially bring a proportionately large error.

.5 x .1 x .025 x 1160 = 1.45Kg

.5 x .1 x .o25 x 900 = 1.125Kg

Just a suggestion. Not compulsory

Regards
Paul