Several weeks ago a friend came to me with a nondescript looking piece of wood about 300mm long and 80 - 90mm in diameter and asked me whether I could turn her a pepper grinder from it. It was obviously the top portion of an old fence post. It was also HEAVY.
I agreed, and proceeded to turn a fairly standard pepper grinder. It was immediately obvious that this wood was HARD. But, using previous experience gained turning 100 year old red gum, I quickly found that it reacted very well to scraping, but tools still needed to be sharpened very frequently.
On completing the turning of the grinder, I began to wonder what this wood could be. A bit of investigation with Dr Google quickly showed that Waddi wood was a good candidate. And the source of my friends wood was consistent with this identification. But continued reeading showed just how rare this wood was - I couldn't find any photographs to compare it with!
So I thought I would tap into the collective wisdom of this forum to see whether you think that this could possibly be Waddi wood or, if not, what else it could be. Your thoughts and suggestions would be very welcome
Bruce
PS: I sanded and polished (EEE) the cut end of the off-cut top of the post just to show what the grain looks like. Fantastic isn't it. I had a go at counting growth rings but gave up and was satisfied with "a lot" - also consistent with a slow grower like waddi wood.
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