Thread: BIG WA Banksia nut

To help you blokes visualise what I ahve in mind here's a pretty standard cork grip on my first bamboo rod.

Attachment 136219
The cork rings are glued together and when dry turned on a lathe using a steel mandrel.
Attachment 136218

Of course a nicely turned timber reel seat is attached to the end behind the grip. I've been using brown mallee & coolabah burl.

Attachment 136216

Attachment 136217

Boris,

Good one, the biggest nuts I have heard of came from Stirlo in Newcastle he had em around 12" long.Hes not in turning any more but may have some contacts.


Just a word of caution on your lathe, try and stay away from any timber that has a high silica content other wise you will have bad wear on your bed and ruin the lathe for any reasonable work in metal later.
Perhaps if your able look around for a cheap wood lathe to do your rod parts

Thanks Hughie. What's the best way to contact Stirlo?

Thanks for the tip on silca and the lathe bed. I'll make sure it's cleaned up after each use.

For turning reel seat timber I find the accuracy of a metal lathe crittical since the metal hardware that is fitted needs to be tight. Also I find it important for the cutting tool that can be wound in and out, left to right accurately when eccentric turning the seat using a metal lathe.

Thanks Hughie. What's the best way to contact Stirlo?

maybe PM him as he pops in from time to time

Thanks for the tip on silca and the lathe bed. I'll make sure it's cleaned up after each use.

Maybe look at a dry lube for the bed and ways as oil is a great collector of dust etc.

BorisL

If you're into rod building you might want to have a yarn to rhossack - he frequents the pen forum and makes rods in Washington state USA
He uses bark for his grips
nice chap

Trend Timbers had some of the big WA banksias

Welcome to the forum

Hi Nick,

Yeah, I've seen many of his posts on the Rod Building Forum. Clever bloke, and he makes nice pens & reel seat inserts.

Thanks for the link and the welcome. I'll check out Trend Timbers and see what they have.

Cheers

I suggest you contact Neale at Djalmari Timbers, Denmark, WA. Great supply and great service.
cheers, kps

Brilliant Kps!

Thanks.

Hello Boris,
I think what you are referring to is the fruit of what is called Banksia grandis or common name, Bull Banksia.
They turn as spindles or small pots\bud vases OK, but the solid wood in the centre for what you want as rod seats is very small- maybe 20mm or so, or less.
Around this you get the remains of the bases of the seed pods, which could make for a very abrasive grip!
Also, if they have been harvested off the ground rather than cut from the tree, they can contain a lot of sand (silica).
This is a photo of something I made last month from Bull Banksia fruit.
Length is 200mm x 220mm high to get some idea of scale.
Regards
Grant MacKinnon
PS: Miss my NZ trout fishing

Originally Posted by Grant Mack

OK, but the solid wood in the centre for what you want as rod seats is very small- maybe 20mm or so, or less.
Around this you get the remains of the bases of the seed pods, which could make for a very abrasive grip!
Also, if they have been harvested off the ground rather than cut from the tree, they can contain a lot of sand (silica).
This is a photo of something I made last month from Bull Banksia fruit.
Length is 200mm x 220mm high to get some idea of scale.

PS: Miss my NZ trout fishing

Grant, the grip you see in the photo is approx. 7/8- 1" thick at the thickest part. It's exactly 7" long. I realise the seed pods would be visible, this is a desirable feature which would make it unique. Of course the whole nut would need to be impregnated with an acrylic or an epoxy to water proof it. The holes in the seed pods would need to be filled also which would provide a smooth finish that could be polished.

It's definitely doable and would be very attractive.

Nice piece you posted there. I see you've won a prize for that. Congratulations.

I miss NZ trout too, roll on November!

Originally Posted by Boris L

Grant, the grip you see in the photo is approx. 7/8- 1" thick at the thickest part. It's exactly 7" long. I realise the seed pods would be visible, this is a desirable feature which would make it unique. Of course the whole nut would need to be impregnated with an acrylic or an epoxy to water proof it. The holes in the seed pods would need to be filled also which would provide a smooth finish that could be polished.

It's definitely doable and would be very attractive.

Nice piece you posted there. I see you've won a prize for that. Congratulations.

I miss NZ trout too, roll on November!

Boris,
If you want to use the core of the nut then you will find that after you get through all the "fluff" then you do get down to some solid wood with attractive recesses ie seed compartment bases.
These can be filled with two part epoxy and then turned and finished as you would do pens or so forth.
I would then treat the whole project as a spindle\pen turning exercise.
Regards
Grant MacKinnon
PS-What type of Bamboo are you using for your rods and what type of fishing eg fresh or salt?

Originally Posted by Grant Mack

Boris,
If you want to use the core of the nut then you will find that after you get through all the "fluff" then you do get down to some solid wood with attractive recesses ie seed compartment bases.
These can be filled with two part epoxy and then turned and finished as you would do pens or so forth.
I would then treat the whole project as a spindlepen turning exercise.
Regards
Grant MacKinnon
PS-What type of Bamboo are you using for your rods and what type of fishing eg fresh or salt?

Yes, that's similar to how I envisaged using them for rod grips. The bamboo species is Arundinaria amabilis (tonkin bamboo).

These rods are for freshwater. Trout mainly.

There is a medium sized banksia pod around here from the Swamp Banksia (Banksia oblongifolia). I use them to cast bottle stoppers, pendant blanks and other things where the larger ones are required. I cast them in a similar way to my Coastal Banksia pods (Banksia integrifolia) I use for pens (see here) except I use conduits to cast them.


Let me know if you are interested, I still have a couple and could do a special cast with the colour of your choice, assuming I have one long enough.


Cheers

Here's a photo of Coastal Banksia and Swamp Banksia pods. One ready to cast, the other cast in pink. The cast Coastal Banksia here is 19mm dia (inside a 25mm cast) and 90mm long. The cast Swamp Banksia is 5" long and dia 2", the uncast (my largest) 7" long and dia 1.75" to 2". These ones are very similar to the giant Bansias from WA (ie plenty of solid timber) just smaller. I also cast the WA Banksias for pepper grinders, they are usually 3" and up to 12" long.

If you want 1" x 7", you could use 2 Coastal Banksia (I could get 1" dia ones) joined at center, or turn down a Swamp Banksia. Both will need to be finished in CA and be quite hard, not flexible like normal fishing rod handles.

I only have 3 uncast Swamp Banksia left, so I'm collecting some more tomorrow.