A gentleman brought me this piece of wood today, about 4" in diameter, 4" high, heavy. Can you guess what it is?
Hint: this ain't yer average chunk of TN wood.
Hint: the bark is hairy. Very hairy.
Hint: it has "oak" in the name but it's not an oak.
Hint: SMC member Richard Casey from the Australian tropics cut it, turned it round to reduce the weight, and carried it all the way from Australia in his suitcase.
Answer: Hairy Oak, allocasuarina inophloia, also known as woolly oak and stringybark she-oak, related to silky oak. http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/person...airy%20oak.htm
I had a great visit today from Richard as he drove around the US, stopping where he found interesting. He finds wood interesting. And drag racing. Maybe llamas. Richard lives about 1300 miles north of Sydney - Australia is HUGE.
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He packed this stash in his suitcase and must have forgotten to take it when he left:
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These are some incredible pieces of wood, some highly figured. From the left, three pieces of MSW (Maple Silk Wood), the Hairy Oak, a piece of ROS (Rose She-Oak), and one of QMP (Queensland Maple). I see some lidded boxes hiding in some of these!
Thank you Richard!
JKJ