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Thread: Bull Oak
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21st November 2018, 05:42 PM #16New Member
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22nd November 2018, 11:06 AM #17GOLD MEMBER
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Funny that I was down in the shed yesterday & found these two logs of Bulloak / Bulloke (The very hard casuarina). I just wish someone would take them off my hands as they are too big and heavy to post anywhere. Would suit someone in Gippsland who loves sharpening tools and beautiful wood.
Just look at the figure on the outside!
B'loke 1.jpg
B'loke 2.jpg
These are about 150-180 mm in dia x 380 mm longLast edited by Euge; 22nd November 2018 at 11:07 AM. Reason: to enlarge images
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22nd November 2018, 01:23 PM #18
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22nd November 2018, 06:18 PM #19GOLD MEMBER
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I will PM you Acco as this is not a sales page.
These 2 sculptural logs are Bull Oak or Bulloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) also formerly called Casuarina luehmannii.
Its from northern Vic / Southern NSW and identity is certain. The common name(s) is applied to other species as Cliff says.
I've been told it is harder that the more northern casuarina eg from central Qld by the same name.
There may be differences in wood properties due to climate or growing conditions or most likely varietal differences in wood properties.
I have seen it milled (with a Lucas Mill) in Naracorte Sth Australia at an IWCS meeting... with considerable difficulty.
Best sawn radially to produce most stable sections. IT WILL TEST YOUR TOOL EDGES!
Euge
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22nd November 2018, 06:49 PM #20
Euge, I think there is a bit of biological variation wherever it grows. Quite a few years back, I got my hands on sizable chunks from 3 separate trees in Victoria, two from near Benalla and one from up near Kyabram. The latter was the nicest Bull oak I've met, with an unusually fine grain. It turned easily & planed well & has a lovely shimmer to the wood when finished. One of the Benalla trees was the toughest wood I'd ever struck, until I got some more Bull oak from a couple of trees out west of Millmerran in Qld. That is now the toughest wood I've worked with! These trees are growing in pretty hungry country, if that has anything to do with it, but I think it's more likely just due to natural variation......
Looks like there'll be 'lace' figure under that swirly exterior on your logs?
Cheers,IW
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22nd November 2018, 07:22 PM #21GOLD MEMBER
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Thanks Ian, yep, I accept your comments re biological variation re bulloak. Thanks for sharing your experiences, and interpretation of what you found.
I've not cut bulloak from different regions nor cut it for quite a few years now. But I have mentally noted comments made by others as wood properties are a research interest of mine.
Lets see what Acco says from his experience cutting and turning it.
Cheers, Euge
PS: Late thought- I note you use "toughness" (which I read as a resilience to pressure & shock), maybe you mean hardness which is sl different. Hardness is a term measured is different ways eg penetration of a steel ball under pressure into the wood (the Janka Hardness test). Most of use measure hardness with the difficulty wood is to cut by a saw.Last edited by Euge; 22nd November 2018 at 07:30 PM. Reason: to add a PS
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22nd November 2018, 09:16 PM #22
Yes, you are right, Euge, guilty of sloppy terminology as charged! I guess what I mean by 'tough' in this context is a combination of properties. Hardness is the most noticeable & obvious (as defined by resistance to indentation), & that can relate to difficulty in planing or chiselling. But hardness per se doesn't always make a wood more difficut to work with, i.e., how it saws, planes or peels on the lathe. Some woods can be quite hard, i.e. resistant to indentation, yet 'peel' under a skew like butter, or plane quite easily. Ebony would be a good example, and (some!) Gidgee I've struck. Some 'hard' woods, however, tend to produce nothing but dust under a skew, no matter how sharp the tool or how good your technique. Some Bull-oak I've met would definitely fit in this category. Then there is another property that affects 'turnability' & that is the grain pattern. Many of the Oaks (true oaks & those that get 'oak' in their names because of the marked medullary ray pattern) can be difficult to turn because the alternate pesentation of hard & soft areas as the piece rotates causes the tool to chatter. Again, some Bull oak, with its very prominent medullary ray pattern can be a very difficult customer in this respect, and you'll get chatter despite your best turning techniques.
Is that a bit better - have I explained myself a bit more clearly??
Cheers,IW
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23rd November 2018, 12:00 AM #23GOLD MEMBER
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Yes Ian, you explained yourself well, with your knowledge of using tools with such woods as a woodworker. A "woodworker" is not not what I would decsribe myself as, at least not now. My sole tool now is not a chisel, nor gouge, nor plane .... its a 19" Meber bandsaw fitted with the best blades money can buy. Because I largely cut desert species which are dense and hard and risky to cut safely I do not wood quaities in my own limited way. The Meber balde is often tested against very hard, dry woods like a large ancient log of waddywood I cut today. The same log showered sparks in the dusk when it was cut in situ ,upright, long ago. Sparks were not from its hardness but rather from occluded sand grains in its outside fibres (bark and sapwood were long gone) .... some woods are hard but oily while others hard and dry and dusty as you say - depending on grain type - fibers, extractives (gums / oils) and the rays eg in bulloak as you say. These cutting qualities show when cutting them, even with a modest bandsaw.
Thanks for your comments which I can identify with as a one time woodworker / crafter.
Cheers Euge
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