You can read more about that project here: http://blog.lostartpress.com/category/books-in-the-works/to-make-as-perfectly-as-possible-roubo-translation/ (Chris’s other blog)

Tom III

I’m just finishing up the book, glad to see you living by what you write (‘And the last thing I’m in the market for are tools’).

Over here in Aus we have some fantastic wood, but sadly most of what we can find at the timber yards is construction grade pine and fir, with the good Aussie hardwoods being available in decking sizes only. I’ve been lucky to find a local place that gets a lot of hardwood as packing material and they are more than happy to save me the excess, and it’s insanely beautiful once cleaned up.

Before you write your next book ‘Smells of the workshop’ make sure you head down here and get a whiff a nice old piece of gum tree .

Andrew

The piece of purpleheart I got makes me wonder why I bought it (I’m mostly a hand tool user). Ugh, that is some seriously tough wood. I’m thinking of using it for some winding sticks.

It is by far my favourite timber, particularly if you get some of the figured birdseye stock. The darker yellow or gold the timber, the denser the wood and the better the scent. Turns beautifully, carves easily and is just wonderful to plane.

Best finish for your square in my view, Danish Oil followed by a good waxing. Over time, the wood will get a deeper and deeper golden colour and thats when the grain becomes more apparent. Magnificent wood. To give others an idea, it could be compared in colour and grain density to English Boxwood, but not as robust on the Janka scale.

And for comparative purposes, $20.00 Australian would buy a block of huon about the size of a couple of decks of cards one on top of the other, roughly.

Chris, I too am in Australia and it never ceases to amaze me how much of this timber is around. For what is apparently quite rare, there’s a lot available. It is restricted though in that no more trees are allowed to be cut down so the expense is all in the digging up of the logs from the rivers and milling them. Living trees only grow a few mm each year so it’s extremely slow growing but still grows quite big. The oldest sample found was estimated to be around 3,500 years old.

Boats used to be built in huon because the natural oils in the timber protected it from rotting. I’ve also seen entire house frames built in the stuff.

Chris, keep your shavings, put them in a porous bag and place it in your linen cupboard or in your wood storage area. It’ll keep all the creepy crawlies away.

The only US wood that I know of that has as strong a smell (though different) is Port Orford Cedar.

And one last thing about our Australian woods is that we have common names for most of them – such as Huon Pine, Kauri Pine, Celery Top Pine, Queensland Walnut, Queensland Maple, Red Mahogany, White Beech, Australian Cedar – and on and on, but not a single one, to my knowledge, is true to its name i.e. the Mahogany is not a true Mahogany, the Maple is not a true Maple, etc. To show you how crazy it gets, our local wood handbook lists 7 different types of Silky Oak, and not only are none of them true to the oak genus of Quercus, but each has a different genus to the others, so they are not even related to each other. It is very confusing to the uninitiated.

Huon is a great wood for drawer sides, with its light colour, greasy nature and wonderful smell. I think you will also find it is pretty stable.