All those with Blackbutt knowledge...

[sigidi]

Will have an opportunity to saw up my first blackbutt soon (cpl weeks) and ws wondering about any perculiarites folkes might know about?

My searching so far has turned up;

Density at 12% 930kg/cubic metre (2046lbs/424bft) so is softer than Ironbark, but still hard.
Hardness 2 on scale 1-6 rated on indentaion adn ease of working with hand tools
Durability 2 - Highly resistant to decay when fully exposed to the weather, clear of the ground and well drained with free air circulation. Moderately decay resistant in the ground.
and most important,
Colour The heartwood is pale brown with a faint tinge of pink when freshly cut. Sometimes the sapwood is indistinguishable from the heartwood but usually it is slightly paler in colour.

now it sounds a pretty versatile timber with some good uses, the chap is wanting slabs from his two trees and also some crotch slabbing done.

So if any of you more experienced fella's can add any knowledge to the above it would be payed back with lots of droolicious photo's ;D

[Tom]

That sounds pretty uniquely "down under".

Eucalyptus viminalis
Eucalyptus ochrophloia  :D

[DanG]

I acknowledge no knowledge of "Black Butt".  I'll have to ask some of my neighbors. ;)

[Jeff]

I thought I was going to have to update the censored word list for a moment... ;)

[Bro. Noble]

You better be DanG careful, DanG :D

[sigidi]

Yep well I've been around here long enoygh to know I should have known better than to call it it's common name instead of Eucalyptus pilularis

I guess that will stop the majority of the posts, but not until we've had a good laugh ;D :D

[Arthur]

sigidi

Here in the Bellingen Shire we have the largest plantations of Blackbutt in Australia.  If you want lots of indepth knowledge call the Coffs Harbour Forestry Department.  Comes under NSW Forestry.

Good alround wood.  Used for building with an average F14 and F17 for good 'A' grade boards.  Good for furniture although a little dull compaired to others we have around here.  Very hardy as flooring.

Come down as see.  I have a local who just bought our HydroDrive mill and is looking at heavy production from his 400ha of Blackbutt forest.  He also has flooded gum.

We have 17 varieties of Aussie hardwood here you can look at.


arthur

[sigidi]

Those varieties you have Arthur are they sawn timber on show or trees in ground?

I have to learn more on my tree ID - or find a website that has more than I already get to see???

[Arthur]

sigidi

we have most still standing in various conditions.  You can see some real bad examples right up to veneer quality.

on the ground we have grey gum, blue gum, tallowood, blackbutt, bloodwood, turps, forest oak, salley wattle, black wattle, coach wood, white mahogony and a few others I dont know the ID of.

We use these for demos and testing of our mills as well as around the farm.  Just done 1km of turps and bloodwood split fences.

The new 31hp Briggs cut through grey gum like it was pine.  Full 8" cut and the only hesitation was the Briggs engineer.

Im here this weekend and will be back in a few weeks (visit to D&L Double Cut in Canada).

arthur

[sigidi]

Cool,

have you sawn much Terpentine with TCT? I only ask as what I've researched says it is harsh on equipment due to it's high silica content - and I may have a couple of giveaways coming to me soon.

It they are terrible I will pass them up even though the timber sounds very impressive; Durability class 1 hardness 1 on scale 1-6,  lighter than Ironbark at 995kg per cube as compared to Ironbark 1105kg per cube and it can be used for marine environments. (gotta love timber which can live in water!!!)

[Percy]

 :D :D :D  The censors should be alert  :D :D :D

[Arthur]

sigidi

I have a few cubics here cur into 8"x2" boards for stairs. looks wonderful.

OK to mill here as we have very little silica in the soil.  white ants and borers dont touch it.

As long as you keep your blade shape and dont force the saw you should be fine.  I have a small diamond disk on a battery grinder I use just to keep the edge.  Normally I would use it once per log.  Onn high silica or ironbark it may be used a number of times.

arthur

[sawmillsi]

Sigidi,

Here is some info for ya:


Blackbutt


Eucalyptus pilularis Smith, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 3: 284 (1797).

T: Port Jackson, N.S.W., 1794, J.White s.n.; holo: LINN; iso: BM, NSW.


E. persicifolia Lodd., Bot. Cab. 6, t. 501 (1821).

T: cultivated in England.


E. incrassata Sieber ex DC., Prodr. 3: 217 (1828) nom. illeg. non Labill. (1806).

T: New Holland, F.W.Sieber 477; holo: G; iso: BM, F, K, MEL, NSW.


E. semicorticata F.Muell., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 3: 86 (1859).

T: Brisbane River, Qld, July 1855, F.Mueller; holo: MEL ; iso: K.


Tree to 70 m tall. Bark rough on lower half of trunk, finely fibrous, grey or grey-brown; smooth bark not powdery or granular, smooth bark cream to white or grey, often with scribbles. Juvenile stem usually square in cross-section; juvenile leaves opposite and sessile for many pairs (until early sapling stage), lanceolate, 5.5-13 cm long, 1-3.6 cm wide, bases rounded or almost amplexicaul, strongly discolorous, dull, green. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.8-2.2 cm long, lanceolate to falcate, 7.5-17 cm long, 1.2-3.2 cm wide, base oblique to tapering to petiole, concolorous or slightly discolorous, glossy, green, penniveined, moderately to densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and well removed from margin, oil glands mostly island. Inflorescences axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.8-2 cm long, 7 to 15-flowered; buds pedicellate, fusiform to diamond-shaped, yellow or creamy, scar absent, operculum conical to beaked, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, stigma blunt or tapered, locules usually 4, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows; flowers white. Fruit pedicellate, hemispherical or truncate-globose, 0.9-1.2 cm wide, disc level to descending, valves 4, enclosed or near rim level. Seed dark brown, 2-2.5 mm long, pyramidal or obliquely pyramidal, dorsal surface smooth, hilum terminal.


NOTES

Eucalyptus pilularis (Latin pilularis, a small pill, refers to the fruit)

A medium-sized to tall forest tree of fertile south-east coastal plains and hills from south of Bega in far south-eastern New South Wales north to Fraser Island in south-eastern Queensland. A monocalypt, it is closely related to only one other eucalypt, E. pyrocarpa. Known as blackbutts, they are characterised by rough fibrous bark over part or most of the trunk, prominent, opposite, sessile, glabrous, juvenile leaves, glossy adult leaves with dense reticulation, strongly flattened peduncles and relatively large buds and fruit in 7s to 15s, and red-brown seeds. Rough bark extends higher in E. pyrocarpa, the buds and fruit are usually glaucous, and the fruit are more obconical rather than truncate-globose. The opposite juvenile leaves distance it from ashes and stringybarks and, while it may have parallels in peppermints, the leaf vein reticulation suggests that the blackbutts are closer to the white mahoganies.


USES

General building construction, flooring, poles, railway sleepers, pulp honey.

This is the distribution


Tree form in forest


Leaf close up and flower


Fruit and juvenil leaf



This is from 'EucLid' (an interactive CDROM) available from bookshops, its published by CSIRO.

Its a condensed version of forest trees of Australia

Simon

[sigidi]

Hey Siomon, that sounds like a great Cd is it specific to Euc's - sounds like it would be???

Bookshops you say, I'll investigate especially as that seems to be all I'm cutting - Well I am gettin spotted gum aswell which is now not a Euc but hey I'll go with the flow...

[Arthur]

Simon

as usuall you exceed in delivering the knowledge on Aussie trees.

arthur

[sawmillsi]

Thanks Arthur,

I have had a bit of experience (harvesting, milling, processing and at university as well).

Sigidi - The cd is for eucs and angopheras in se qld and nsw. Spotted gums are now in a sub family of eucs called corymbia (only euc family to include rough bark and smooth bark - bloodwoods are in this group as well)



Spotted gum

Eucalyptus maculata Hook., Icon. Pl. 7: 619 (1844).

Corymbia maculata (Hook.) K.Hill & L.Johnson, Telopea 6: 393 (1995).

T: Maitland, N.S.W., J.Backhouse 37: syn: K, NSW; New Holland, C.Fraser s.n.; syn: K; Liverpool, N.S.W., collector unknown; syn: MEL; Newcastle, N.S.W., ?L.Leichhardt s.n.; syn: MEL.


Tree to 45 m tall. Bark smooth, mottled cream, yellow, blue-grey, pink-grey, to green-grey or brown, sometimes becoming granular with age. Juvenile stem rounded in cross-section; juvenile leaves always petiolate, opposite for 2-3 pairs then alternate, broadly ovate to lanceolate, 7-20 cm long, 3-7.5 cm wide, peltate for many nodes, base rounded at first, later tapering to petiole, green; stem, petiole and leaf scabrid until node 6-8. Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1-2.5 cm long, lanceolate to falcate , 8-21 cm long, 1.2-3 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, concolorous, slightly glossy or dull, green, strongly penniveined, densely to very densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and just within margin, oil glands island. Inflorescences axillary compound, peduncles 0.3-2 cm long, 3-flowered (rarely 7-flowered); buds pedicellate, ovoid to pyriform to clavate, green to creamy, usually smooth, scar present or absent (outer operculum held to or almost to flowering, operculum scar therefore obvious only at late bud development if at all), operculum rounded to conical or beaked, stamens inflexed, anthers cuboid or cuneate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits (non-confluent), style long, stigma blunt or mop-like, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 5 vertical ovule rows (sometimes indistinct); flowers white. Fruit pedicellate, urceolate or barrel-shaped, 0.9-1.3 cm wide, disc descending, valves 3 or 4, enclosed. Seed reddish black, 2-6 mm long, flattened or saucer shaped to boat-shaped, dorsal surface smooth, not winged, hilum ventral.


NOTES

Eucalyptus maculata (Latin maculatus, spotted, from the characteristic bark)

A medium-sized to tall erect tree widespread along the coastal plains and hills of New South Wales, often on shales and slates, extending into Queensland where it occurs inland to Monto, Carnarvon Gorge and Chinchilla; also one stand in far eastern Victoria north-west of Orbost. Of the bloodwood group, it is easily recognised in the field by the erect trunks, smooth mottled bark and green crowns, often occurring in more or less pure stands. Inflorescences are in 3s along elongated, axillary rachises. Fruit are relatively large and woody. Seeds are wingless, flattish, red-black, shiny and often with cracked seed coat. It is closely related to the similar looking E. citriodora which occurs further north in Queensland and has narrower, lemon-scented leaves and less mottled bark. The natural affinity of both species, based on the seeds, is with the yellow bloodwoods. It is also very closely related to E. henryi of north coastal New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland. This latter species has larger leaves from juvenile to adult as well as larger buds and fruit.


USES

Mines and heavy construction, housing, flooring, bent work, tool handles, preservative-treated poles, plywood, gums, pulp, honey.


An easy way to tell the difference (apart from the citriodora being lighter and less spotted) is that the leaf of the citriodora is very fragrent (smells of lemon when crushed).

Distribution


Tree


Leaf


Fruit



Good luck

Si

[HORSELOGGER]

Hey, howsabout a picture of some cut ? Would like to see what the lumber looks like ???

[sawmillsi]

I'll have a look for some

[sigidi]

Horselogger as soon as I cut up this blackbutt and Terpentine I'll assail ya with heaps o pics. :D ;D