Eucalyptus

[bill walton]

A friend in Texas sent me a couple of pieces of some figured Eucalyptus, supposedly from Australia. Neither is more than 4 inches wide. I'm not sure yet what I'll use it for but it has a lot of figure on it. What the scoop on this wood? It's a kind of grayish color.
TIA

[Jim W. White]

Eucalyptus is native to Australia and it's a popular specie to produce hybrids of. Cross breeding eucalyptus with a variiety of other trees have produced many lumber species to include 'Jarrah' which is still available at some hardwood distributors as well as the extremely fadish 'Lyptus' variety which is popular now and is currently being marketed by Weyerheauser as a hardwood "renewable resource". In picking through a pallet of lyptus at my local distrubutor I found numerous peices with a considerable amount of "curly figure" in them; so I wouldn't be too surprised to find peices with some figure in true eucalyptus stock.

I've never examined any true 'eucalyptus' so I can't remark directly on it's working properties. the working properties of the aforementioned hybrids can be found readily by googling them on the net.

..Jim in Idaho

[Dean Lukies]

Burn a little of it, if it is realy Eucalyptus you will get a distinct smell from the smoke which of course I can't describe because it smells like ... Eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus is a genus not a specific species of tree. Jarrah is a Eucalypt and is so awesome to work with that when I was younger I didn't consider working with much else.

If it is grey then it isn't jarrah though.

Will ask my father back home which commercially available eucalyptus wood is grey and get back to you but I read recently that it is being grown commercially in Brazil and California so it may be from Australia but growing here like me.

If you do get hold of it save the shavings and chips and put em in your fireplace/chiminea/what have you, smells awesome!

Dean

[Don Baer]

Living in California I have recently taken an interest inthis for some of my projects. It is fairly easy for me to get and a good hardwood thus my interest. I can get as much as I want for the cost of firewood. The only thing is I will need to mill it my self. If you google on the words Euclyptus and woordworking you will get an all of the infomation you want and more. Here is a quote from "wood in the raw" web site.

"Eucalyptus<!--mstheme-->

The eucalyptus genus represents more than 300 species. They have been successfully planted in South America, South Africa, Europe and the United States. Color:It is pinkish-brown in color and turns to a reddish-brown with age and exposure to light.
Characteristics: Its' resistance to decay is relative to teak. Eucalyptus is a heavy hardwood that earns high marks for strength.
Eucalyptus is a renewable resource with high productivity in relatively short harvest rotations. The wood in these products comes from well managed forests, independently certified in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). "

Hope this helps.

[Ian Abraham]

As mentioned Eucalyptus is a whole group of different trees... with different wood properties. Availability and working properties vary from species to species, but generally it's a very hard / heavy wood. The trees sometimes produce burl / figure for whatever reason, same as most types of trees. The wood can be difficult to dry because of it's high shrinkage (from experience, it will warp and check easily while drying), but once dry it is usually good to work with. Colours vary from light grey to a really deep red depending on the species.

Have a look at some of the Aussie timber / woodwork sites, they have a lot of info and pictures of various eucalyptus timber.

A place to start http://www.mullumbimbywoodworks.com.au

Cheers

Ian