Hardest wood on earth

[VinceGU05]

Lol.
My floor boards are black butt.

 

[Brewz]

Gorgeous Vince!

I do believe black butt is the timber used for the floor boards at Parliament house

 

[VinceGU05]

I think this is blackbutt too. Gees it was hard to mill!

 

[Iron.and.bark]

I think this is blackbutt too. Gees it was hard to mill!

Should have used a dolmar

Seriously though, probably is as it looks very similar to West Australian redgum (which it is often confused for here in w.a.).

We also have "black boys" (now renamed to grass tree). Small stumpy trees, with a very slow growth cycle. Lovely figure, but extremely carsinogenic.

Here is an example pic, not my work.

To turn this wood it is adviced to have a full respirator system. Additionally soak in water for week so particles come off as a slurry, rather than air borne dust particles.

 

[Brewz]

Ha ha got to love Australia

Even te saw dust is venomous

 

[KiwiBro (deleted)]

Milled a bit of Saligna and have plenty more to mill next summer, and will run it into flooring myself, the slow, painful and time-costly way with a bench mounted thicknesser and a T&G bit in my router. Looking forward to installing the flooring. It's a ripper colour - lovely warm rose colour. Hard too.
Today and tomorrow and probably the weekend, will be finishing off making a heap of TG&V sarking ex 6x1 from a Mac i dropped, harvested, milled, dried. Probably won't install it - will leave that up to a friend. But satisfying to take stuff from standing tree to finished product. Wow, the mac is soft compared to saligna.

 

[Mutley]

Hi all,

I currently have one of these on the trailer ATM; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eremophila_bignoniiflora

It was a 20+ year old small tree of about 4-5M in height & about 5-6M across. Mostly twigs, with a few small branches, the largest of which was about 8-9" across at the cut.

It is very dense & has very little moisture in it when green. I had to swap chains about 2/3rds of the way through, as it blunted up my chain (I don't sharpen on the job site)

It fooled me when I looked at it, as it looked easy -it wasn't!

 

[Iron.and.bark]

Hi all,

I currently have one of these on the trailer ATM; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eremophila_bignoniiflora

It was a 20+ year old small tree of about 4-5M in height & about 5-6M across. Mostly twigs, with a few small branches, the largest of which was about 8-9" across at the cut.

It is very dense & has very little moisture in it when green. I had to swap chains about 2/3rds of the way through, as it blunted up my chain (I don't sharpen on the job site)

It fooled me when I looked at it, as it looked easy -it wasn't!

What's the grain/colour like inside?

 

[Mutley]

Sorry about the amateurish shot, but its dark & the flash is lightening it up in the pic. I'll give it a try tomorrow. The heartwood looks just like a Jarrah fence post.

 

[Iron.and.bark]

Looks abit like mulga

 

[Iron.and.bark]

Example of mulga. Makes bandsaw blades waver big time

 

[Mutley]

Yes, its very much like that. Sorry but this pic really isn't any better than the last one. These 2 cuts are around 3" across. There is some extremely narrow borer damage, most evident on the right side. Very game little bugs to chew on that stuff lol!

 

[Iron.and.bark]

They must have a good dental plan

What are you doing with it? Probably be a few wood turners / knife makers who'd like it.

 

[CR888]

It surprises me what them tiny little bugs can do to wood as hard and heavy as concrete. Respect!

 

[rocco490]

You guys in Australia have us beat in Virginia but we do have some decent hardwoods. Here in southeast Virginia we're at about the northernmost limit for Live Oak it is probably the hardest and densest we have, Osage Orange (hedge apple) is very tough stuff as well, the hickories are pretty hard and dense, Black locust is quite hard, and Hornbeam (we call iron wood here) is also some hard wood I bent a nail on one nailing a target to it.
And these all make top notch firewood! I wouldn't even want any hotter firewood you can warp a woodstove with some of these as it is if you aren't careful.
Something I was going to add the janka scale and some of the wood strength properties charts I have looked at don't take into account trees of the same species can and do vary from one to another so a large sample size from various sites/locations would really be needed for an accurate average.

 

[Mutley]

They must have a good dental plan

What are you doing with it? Probably be a few wood turners / knife makers who'd like it.

It went to the dump unfortunately. Its a shame, but I don't have any where to store it. I used to put logs out on my nature strip & neighbours would take it as firewood, but I think they're all stocked up, as the last pile (Robinia) sat there a week & I loaded it back up & took it to the dump. I get quite a mixture of timbers because of the nature of what I do. Took down a Coral tree of all things once & left the "logs" on the customers footpath (1st two pics) - someone actually took them! Same, same with a Port Jackson Fig tree (last pic).

 

[Wilhelm]

It went to the dump unfortunately. Its a shame, but I don't have any where to store it. I used to put logs out on my nature strip & neighbours would take it as firewood, but I think they're all stocked up, as the last pile (Robinia) sat there a week & I loaded it back up & took it to the dump. I get quite a mixture of timbers because of the nature of what I do. Took down a Coral tree of all things once & left the "logs" on the customers footpath (1st two pics) - someone actually took them! Same, same with a Port Jackson Fig tree (last pic).

Unbelievable, entire logs dumped?!

If it weren't for shipping costs I'd take all and any logs and stockpile them on a unprocessed field right next to my house.
I payed for my this years firewood logs two months ago - I am still waiting for them to be delivered!

I burn anything and everything that is wood-like, if deemed necessary fast burning stuff gets mixed with slow burning hardwood (usually oak or acacia).

I like Your Makita, very much!

 

[Iron.and.bark]

Unbelievable, entire logs dumped?!

If it weren't for shipping costs I'd take all and any logs and stockpile them on a unprocessed field right next to my house.
I payed for my this years firewood logs two months ago - I am still waiting for them to be delivered!

I burn anything and everything that is wood-like, if deemed necessary fast burning stuff gets mixed with slow burning hardwood (usually oak or acacia).

I like Your Makita, very much!

Yep, happens all the time even in my small community. People want a certain type of wood to burn, nothing else is good enough.

I work in the Forrest and go through "public firewood area's" and I see so much stupidity and illegal dropping of Forrest canopy and bird habitat tree's is gut wrenching. Yet other types are down, but no one wants to burn this 'inferior" wood.

Australian's don't realize how good we have it. Our society enables us to waste so much...

Excellent spot on the makita (Dolmar), wish I could double like mutley's post.

 

[Brewz]

I generally take what I can get.
I got hold of a heap of scribly bark last year and its great. Its much lighter but very hard.
I had a lot and tried to sell some but people would pick it up and turn up their noses. Usual reply was..... got any ironbark mate?
It burns really hot, just dont last quite as long as ironbark in the fire.

A lot of people look at a tree and see firewood, and cut it down without checking for hollows where native birds may nest.

I almost never drop trees. There is always enough timber on the ground.
I have got timber by driving somewhere and seeing a tree blown down in a paddock. Stop, knock on the door and ask the owner if they would like someone to help out with removal of it. Often the answer is "yeah mate sure... will save me chopping it up.
I have chopped trees and left half of it cut into firewood rounds for the owner, stack the small stuff to be burnt over the stump and you will always be welcome back.

 

[CR888]

I get what you say about some dry seasoned lighter species burning extra hot but not as long. I've come across wood like that, I like a diverse wood stack some slow burning some fast. Wood often is measured in BTU's as a measure of quality which of coarse it is but there is a little more too it IMO. Some wood releases its energy much faster and hotter than others. Variety is good.