Experimenting with Australian and New Zealand Woods

I Was Making Gifts Recently…

I recently made some bottle stoppers as gifts for the upcoming, admittedly far off yet, holidays.  I was fortunate in being able to experiment with two rather unusual woods, or at least woods that are likely to unfamiliar to United States based turners: Australian Desert Rosewood and New Zealand Rimu.

Australian Desert Rosewood

Australian Desert Rosewood is scientifically known as Alectryon oleifolius.  This particular wood is found exclusively in the eastern deserts and dry lands of Australia.  The wood is not extensively harvested and when used it is almost exclusively used in small amounts for decorative purposes such as knife handles and turned pieces.  The leaves are occasionally harvested for their oil which finds its way into locally made cosmetics.  The tree is a recommended planting by the Alice Springs, Australia, Town Council.

The color is very dark red-brownish purple, sometimes featuring black streaks.  The wood is very dense and has fine grain.  Sadly, there are usually some cracks or natural fissures in samples of this wood, and occasionally one will find some degree of fine mineralization in the pores.

Because of its hardness and density, the wood finishes beautifully, polishing to a mirror-like finish with only carnauba wax without using other chemicals, finishes, dyes, etc.

The ease of finishing is matched by the overall ease of turning.  The wood shaves nicely with reasonable pressure and it tends to resist cracking and chipping in the roughing and beading processes.  The woods hardness allows for fine and small detail shapes to be made with little to no heartache.  If you can find pieces of this particular wood, I feel confident in saying that you will enjoy turning with it.

New Zealand Rimu

New Zealand Rimu is scientifically known as Dacrydium cupressinum.  Rimu is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand.

Rimu grows throughout New Zealand, in the North Island, South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura.  Although the largest concentration of trees is now found on the West Coast of the South Island, the biggest trees tend to be in mixed podocarp forest near Taupo (e.g., Pureora, Waihaha, and Whirinaki Forests).

Rimu is a slow-growing tree, eventually attaining a height of up to 50 m, although most surviving large trees are 20 to 35 m tall.

Historically, Rrimu and other native trees such as Kauri and Totara were the main sources of wood for New Zealand, including furniture and house construction. However, many of New Zealand’s original stands of Rimu have been destroyed, and recent government policies forbid the felling of Rimu in public forests, though allowing limited logging on private land.  Other woods have now replaced Rimu in most industries, although Rimu remains popular for the production of high quality wooden furniture. There is also limited recovery of stump and root wood, from trees felled many years before, for use in making bowls and other wood turned objects.  Medically, the inner bark can also be used to treat burns and cuts.

The wood for these particular stoppers was brought home from Picton, New Zealand, where it was given to me by a wood turner in his shop on the main street of town.  The details of the location are as follows:

Karaka Wood Gallery

Clive and Colleen Barlow

8 High Street

Picton, New Zealand

Although is wood is popular in New Zealand for making turned objects, my experience of the wood was less than stellar.  I found that the rimu didn’t hold beads well and showed a marked tendency to crack and chip very easily which proves to be very frustrating when making spindle turned pieces.  The wood rounds nicely and it only seems to be in the creation of smaller accent designs that grief is encountered.  Perhaps pieces that are from stumps or burls are more reasonable to turn and I am not certain as to the origin of the pieces I was given, i.e. stump wood or recently harvested material.

However, once you gain the shape and design you want, the rimu takes a finish very nicely, in this case Behlen’s Turner’s Finish followed by a strong buffing with rouge, tripoli, and finally carnauba wax on cloth wheels at relatively high speeds.



A Request to Readers for Help In Locating More Wood!

It is always fun to experiment with woods that are new and unusual and the woods of Australia and New Zealand are certainly that.  Unlike the exotic woods of tropical America, Asia, and Africa, the woods of Australia and New Zealand tend to be difficult to locate and purchase in the United States.  I was fortunate to have these pieces, both species having been given to me in different places and different times.  If anyone out there knows of reliable sources of imported Australian or New Zealand woods, please let me know as I would be very interested in obtaining and working with more specimens in the future.