New to me, that is! I got some "Swamp oak" (Allocasuarinahuegelianaobesa) from Euge, about a year (or was it more?) ago, enough to squeeze two saw handles from. Anyhow, I finally got the round tuit to make up a handle: Attachment 479965
Interesting stuff. The surface of the piece I got was a deep blackish-brown before I exposed fresh wood, so I assume it will re-darken after a while. It was a little bit easier to plane/rasp than eastern She-oak (A. torulosa), but not a lot. It was easy to scrape & sand & it polished up to a nice tactile surface like other casuarinas I've used. The rays, when viewed from the tangential surface, have a pale spot in the middle - they look like tiny eyes. Haven't seen this in a casuarina before, it might be just this tree, or it might be a characteristic of the species.
So now I have one more saw handled with a different casuarina, which makes six in total. It shows the wide range in colour & ray size in the species I've played with: Attachment 479966
Edit #2: I should name the oaks for future reference. On the left (front to back) are: Bull oak (A. leuhmanii), She oak (A. torulosa) and the Swamp oak (A. obesa). On the right, Rock oak (A. heugeliana), River oak (spalted) (A. cunninhamiana) and Hairy or Flame oak (A. inophloia)
There are many more out there, but I think I will be satisfied with this lot for the time being. Unless I happen to stumble on a particularly nice bit of lace S-oak. :U
Cheers,
Edit - Apologies, I mixed my species up. There are three "Swamp" oaks, and this one, from W.A., is A. obesa, not huegelina . THought I better correct myself before Euge does... :U