# Who wants some NZ timber turning blanks?



## KiwiBro (Jun 16, 2017)

Am not sure how we could go about doing this (pyhtosanitary requirements, etc of exporting/importing timbers) but NZ does have some quite lovely native timbers that I'm sure other woodworkers around the world would appreciate also.

I've got quite a few blocks of quite lovely timber here at the mo', so if anyone is interested, please let me know. I'm thinking, but certainly not limited to, pen blanks might be a good, easy start to learn if we are allowed to send this stuff out of the country.

If anyone is interested, you could google images of timbers like Rimu, Kauri, Totara, Matai, Pohutukawa, Puriri. I have these in my racks looking for special projects.

Here's some figured Rimu, for example:


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## Jim Timber (Jun 19, 2017)

That'd make lovely pistol grips, or a rifle stock.


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## KiwiBro (Jun 20, 2017)

Sure would. If only the blocks were long enough. Alas, they are just small bits.


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## SeMoTony (Jun 22, 2017)

KiwiBro said:


> Am not sure how we could go about doing this (pyhtosanitary requirements, etc of exporting/importing timbers) but NZ does have some quite lovely native timbers that I'm sure other woodworkers around the world would appreciate also.
> 
> I've got quite a few blocks of quite lovely timber here at the mo', so if anyone is interested, please let me know. I'm thinking, but certainly not limited to, pen blanks might be a good, easy start to learn if we are allowed to send this stuff out of the country.
> 
> ...


Lovely figure. Reminds me of "waterfall bubinga" from africa, $20 range per b/ft in large table size slabs. The logs that are exported to europe are around 6 foot or more diameter. The size is what makes the phyhtosanitary economical IMHO. The price is from what I recall from a couple years ago when I thought I''d have a large enough room to make one of those 14 foot long by 4 foot wide tables to show off. I've gotten over that sillyness. That you for showing something I would not know of other wise


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## KiwiBro (Jun 23, 2017)

Thanks. Makes sense if fumigating to do a whole container or more at a time. I would have to ask but I was wondering if a declaration the wood had been kiln dried would meet the phyto' needs. I guess would have to be kilned at a certified facility and not our domestic oven 

Have been working on these native timbers this morning. I was given two sacks of wood shorts by a friends parents recently. They have just sold the family farm and cleared out all sheds on the property. The sacks were from three generations ago and I thought it might be nice to make some jewellery boxes and give them back to my mates and their family so each of the extended family can always have a little piece of the farm that none of them are happy about having (bank said sell or we sell it) to sell.

I haven't sanded and you can still see the snipe my hopeless thicknesser leaves in it - I am looking for a new thicknesser. Couldn't resist throwing some oil on the wood. From left to right is:
Kahikatea (with borer - it and Kauri are especially prone to attack), Totara, Matai, Rimu, Kauri


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## KiwiBro (Jun 26, 2017)

Was straightening and cleaning up some rough sawn 2x4 studs removed from a house demolition recently. Lots of ugly, twisted, bent, knotty studs of various NZ species. Hopeless to straighten but they usually contain the most interesting, albeit unstable, wood. Here's a chunk I cut off a Kauri stud before straightening. Nice depth to the grain. Something Kauri is known for.


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## Brad Burnette (Mar 28, 2018)

Do you have any pen blanks cut?


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## KiwiBro (Mar 29, 2018)

No but easy enough to do. That said, I've not looked into the biosanitary requirements of posting it but will do so if you are keen on some. I'm away for a few weeks though so it might be close to a month before I get back to this thread with info. Meantime just sing out with what species you are keen on and the sizes you need and I'll try to get onto it when i get back.


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## Deleted member 149229 (Apr 5, 2018)

That is some gorgeous wood but to your point I think the export/import requirements would be off the charts. Help me on this one @KiwiBro, saw a show once about them hunting and finding buried prehistoric tree trunks. These things were MASSIVE! Brought huge excavators to dig them up, huge crane to load them on a lowboy trailer. I’m thinking these things were like 30’-50’ in diameter. Thinking these were in NZ or AU. The milled wood was amazing, plus expensive.


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## KiwiBro (Apr 9, 2018)

Swamp Kauri fell over many tens of thousands of years ago, into peat swamps and because of the lack of oxygen around it, the decay is very little. Guys dig 'em up and mill or sell as it. Sometimes they are so huge it's almost beyond comprehension. It's not petrified wood either, it's just wonderfully preserved.

They can date 30,000 years old sometimes older.

Just for you I rolled passed a kauri sanctuary to snap a pic of a favourite one of mine, by no means the biggest of 'em but a good size.


That's the 395 with 42" bar leaning against it, for reference


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## Deleted member 149229 (Apr 9, 2018)

KiwiBro said:


> Swamp Kauri fell over many tens of thousands of years ago, into peat swamps and because of the lack of oxygen around it, the decay is very little. Guys dig 'em up and mill or sell as it. Sometimes they are so huge it's almost beyond comprehension. It's not petrified wood either, it's just wonderfully preserved.
> 
> They can date 30,000 years old sometimes older.
> 
> ...


Thanks, that’s it. I remember in that show watching them load it on low boy trailers with cranes, amazing the size.


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