Buy local: homegrown ‘oak’

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American oak is popular but let’s not forget our homegrown timbers that offer similar colour and strength. Island Specialty Timbers in Tasmania have good stocks of what is commonly called Tasmanian oak.

This is mainly produced from three Eucalyptus species: E. obliqua (stringybark), E. regnans (swamp gum or mountain ash) and E. delegatensis (white top ash or alpine ash). This superb mix of eucalypts is available as feature or clear grade.

Tasmanian sawmills process eucalypt sawlogs into quarter-sawn timber which tends to have a fairly uniform grain. The feature grade contains resin pockets that are easily filled to give exciting grain patterns.

The clear grade often shows light fiddleback and beautiful chatoyance. Some trees contain fiddleback grain near the butt or in some cases tear-drop grain, hobnail or gum vein occurs throughout the whole trunk.

Burls contain a highly irregular and intricate pattern resulting from twisting compact growth and may be solid or contain many gum pockets.

IST Geeveston regularly recovers figured eucalypt logs from logging operations for sale or to process into seasoned timber or slabs. Eucalypt burls are available as a whole, in waxed turning blanks and in dried burl slabs.

For more information see www.islandspecialtytimbers.com.au

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