Has anybody worked with Kauri wood

[smorris]

I'm thinking of using the "ancient" Kauri for a project. Anyone used it and can tell me how it is to work with or anything I need to be aware of before I start working with it. It's a little pricey and I'd rather not discover the hard way it doesn't handle planing or some other operation gracefully.

[SARGE..g-47]

I'm thinking of using the "ancient" Kauri for a project. Anyone used it and can tell me how it is to work with or anything I need to be aware of before I start working with it. It's a little pricey and I'd rather not discover the hard way it doesn't handle planing or some other operation gracefully.

Very soft and delicate to work with from what I understand. I have not used it but I am sure that most New Zealanders have. You might Google for the web-site of Phillip Marcou who is a well known hand plane maker down in New Zealand and e-mail him. I have a feeling Phillip can tell you about it.

And don't let him try to sell you a $8000 hand plane. Tell him Sarge sent you and he will know immediately you are one penny pinching hombre.

Good luck with that ancient wood...

[Russianwolf]

I've made some pens out of it. It is rather soft as Sarge mentioned.

The tree itself (the species is still alive) is a Conifer similar to the Sequoia here in California, although the wood is more Golden than Red. Hardness is bout the same as redwood also.

The pieces I have are about 30,000 years old or more (some have been dated to 50,000 years) and are excavated from farmland as they are found. There is a company that specializes in them and their office is amazing. They found a stump and put it on a concrete pad and built their office around it. They then took a chainsaw and carved an internal spiral staircase in the stump to the second floor.

http://www.ancientkauri.co.nz/index...._log_staircase

[SARGE..g-47]

[QUOTE=Russianwolf;398942]I've made some pens out of it. It is rather soft as Sarge mentioned.

As I know didly-squat about turning Russianwolf.. just curious and have a question on turning. Is softer woods more desirable to turn? I have seen the results of many who turned bowls from geeen wood and it just appeared they they sort of preffered it green while it was softer.

It that the reason they use green or is it just a co-incidence? I would assume that softer wood is easier to shear as it is with power tools.. but is there medium ground in there somewhere on whether soft or hard is the most sought after by turners?

[Uncle Cracker]

I made three Kauri pens for a friend from Cali who got his hands on a very small piece. Like Mike, I found it very similar to working with redwood. Frankly, I was not impressed by the look of the wood, as many burls and other figured woods are far more dramatic. It is the rarity and age of most of this wood that lends interest.

[Russianwolf]

Sarge, If I have a choice, I turn the hardest woods I can find. The more dense the wood, the better it turns for me. Lignum Vitae and Cocobolo are two examples. They eat saw blades for breakfast but you get gorgeous curls flying off on the lathe.

Green wood isn't necessarily softer than dry wood, but it tend to produce less dust, which is why some prefer turning it. Of course when it's really green, you can sometimes literally see water being thrown out of the wood.

Turning soft woods, the fibers tend to bend before shearing off as compared to dense woods. You can really see it on a pen blank, since the ends are fairly thin. Once you finish turning, the fibers can sometime look like a spiral around the tube.

[Tom Miller]

I have seen the results of many who turned bowls from geeen wood and it just appeared they they sort of preffered it green while it was softer.

It that the reason they use green or is it just a co-incidence?

In addition to Mike's good answer, turning "green" wood allows you to sidestep the issue of stabilizing your blank; that is, if you turn it to completion in this state.

The one time that I turned a green piece, though, was to make an oversized blank, which I turned to completion after it was dry. But, I have to say, roughing out the green piece was ten times more fun. The wood comes spraying out of your bowl gouge like rope-sized silly string.

Folks who turn green pieces to completion make the walls thin enough so they don't crack, but rather flex to non-round shapes when they're done.

And, regarding softer woods: I think the problem is that the wood fibers aren't anchored well to their nearest neighbors. You need much sharper tools, so that the force required to cut is less, to get good results.

Regards,
Tom

[smorris]

Thanks for the answers. I think I'll pick up a little bit to play with and see if it is something I like or not.

[SARGE..g-47]

Thanks... Mike and Tom as that was rather interesting info and not really what I would have guessed. I have seen the water flying from green at IWF when I was demo'ing for Steel City. The gentleman that owns the Nashville Woodcraft came down to demonstrated the SC lathes. He brought hard wood and a few green blanks with him.

I would have loved to have gone back to the rear of the booth and spent some time but unfortunately I had to run miles of re-saw to demo the BS but would have to swithch to whatever machine a customer wanted to see used/ So... maybe some other time but Aaron Sapp (the co-owner with his dad I mentioned) invited me up for a few days to instruct me. He must love to turn as he would spend all day on that lathe and not even bother taking a minute for lunch.

The NOVA people were allowed to use the rear of the Steel City Booth also. I learned quite a bit about the machines themselves but not the actual turning which I would guess is the "fun" part of the equation.

Thanks again for the information as I just get curious and eventually getting around to asking.

Regards...

[Uncle Cracker]

Perhaps the drift to green wood here presents the opportunity to remind the uninitiated that working green wood also exposes your tooling and equipment to water. Don't forget to clean, dry and lube your stuff after working green.