Australian red Oak

[Simon Hansen]

Hello
Has anyone tried australian red oak in boatbuilding? Here in Denmark that kind of wood is new on the market. It looks nice, but how good is it?
Regards
Simon

[Wild Wassa]

Australian Red Oak?

She Oak, Silky Oak, Red Gum, Red Carabeen, I know. Red Oak? This has me bluffed. It could be a proprietry name similar to how we call a mixed species of Eucalyptus, Tasmanian Oak . I'll have a chat to my friends at Adams timber. Back soon.

Warren.

[Wild Wassa]

I've done a Timber Industries Association Search, a Forest Industries Product search, a common names given to Australian Timbers search, Adams Timbers have done a search of their species lists, and drawn a blank in all searches.

Can you describe the timber, post a photo on the site, send me a photo at hudson@webone.com.au or wait for the other Aussies to come on line.

I've got the week off work this week, due to multiple bee stings. Ears like an elephant I have. I know what Australian Red Ear looks like.

Warren.

[ 10-18-2002, 12:15 AM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[WRB]

Messmate (Eucalyptus Obliqua ) has the common name "Black Forest Oak" and is now being exported to Europe. Ranges in colour blonde through dark red/ brown. Could be this, if so, it is not durable enough for boat building

cheers
Warren

[Simon Hansen]

Hello!
Thanks for the help! After a bit research on the internet the common name used in Scandinavia is Australian Oak. Well, common is not the right word - just found 3 pages, and the where all about wooden windows.
The wood is hard and heavy, is just a little red - and it does not look like scandinavian oak at all. Perhaps it is what you call Black Forest Oak?
Regards Simon

[ 10-18-2002, 04:38 AM: Message edited by: Simon Hansen ]

[PeterSibley]

Just about any Australian timber with (I'm going to get this wrong)radial medula ?pores gets called oak by the marketing boys.No relation to oak (European or North American)and a huge variety of timbers... eucalypts ,casurinas,grevilias and rain forest species.Some are very good ,some are fire wood,and its very hard to tell which is which without looking at them up close.
Peter

[Wild Wassa]

Peter I agree whole heartedly. False naming of timbers to make them accepted by the International Communittee, is doing the entire communitee a disservice.

Where have the International standards gone? If Simon was able to tell we Aussies the timber's real name, we would have the boat built by tomorrow morning.

Warren.

[ 10-18-2002, 07:19 AM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[Bruce Hooke]

My wood reference book A Guide to Useful Woods of the World lists "Australian Oak" as one name for Eucalyptus regnans. Other names include Mountain Ash, Canary Ash, Giant Gum, Swamp Gum, Stringy Gum, and Argento. It looks a lot like US and European Oak. It is reported to be "about 50% stiffer, twice as tough, and 20% stronger in bending than European Oaks. It is classified as non-durable and is resistant to preservative treatment."

The book also notes that "'Tasmanian Oak' is a trade name for a mixture of three species of Eucalypts. Mountain Ash ['Australian Oak'] is one of them. The other two are E. delegatensis (Alpine Ash) and E. Oblique (messmate stringybark). These three species may or may not be marketed separately. It appears that they are marketed separately in Australia but for the export trade they are combined and marketed as Tasmanian Oak." Unforunately my book does not say anything more about E. delegatensis and E. Oblique. "Australian Oak" (Eucalyptus regnans) sounds rather like our Ash (Fraxinus ...) -- strong and tough but not very rot resistant. Ash certainly has some good boatbuilding uses but it's use should be limited to places where rot will not be a major issue.

Have you asked your lumber dealer if they have any more details on the species makeup of what they are selling as "Australian Red Oak"?

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

G'day, Simon,

As Bruce says, mountain ash is one of several species that go to make up the generic class of "Australian Oak" (also "Tasmanian Oak.") In other words, it's a purely fictitious timber, a nice useful little marketing ploy. When you go to buy it, you can be buying any one of the different species (or I suppose even a mixture of them,) and I think it largely depends on what timber the mills have been processing most recently.

(I also think the whole concept stinks, too. But then, I'm not a marketer,,,, About the only thing to say in its favour is that the species concerned all have pretty similar properties.)

However, none of the timbers that go to make up the class (particularly Mountain Ash,) could be described as red.

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au./pin1.jpg This sketch is of a belaying pin that was made from mountain ash.

The only other possibility that comes to mind is Red Tulip Oak, Tarrietia peralata (not a eucalypt, nor of course a quercus,) density 50-70 pcf, strength group C (medium,) medium durability, and noted in one of my guides as being useful for steam-bent timbers. But I find it pretty hard to believe that we'd be exporting Tulip Oak to Denmark.

It would be helpful if you could determine the scientific name of the timber you have there. My guess is that it's mountain ash (E. regnans, which is our tallest-growing hardwood at up to 300', and comes mainly from Victoria and Tasmania.)

Mike

[ 10-20-2002, 01:35 AM: Message edited by: Wooden Boat Fittings ]

[Bruce Hooke]

Following up on Mike's note...the picture in my book is not particularly red, but, then again, neither is much of what gets sold here in the US as 'Red Oak'. I suppose most Red Oak here is a bit redder than the picture, but not by that much...