What wood?

[Homer]

Would you gents all agree this looks like walnut?

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[Al Diehl]

Yes. The butt looks like "Turkish Walnut". I have an 1888 Commision Rifle with a similar Tiger Stripe Walnut stock on it. Not as pretty as that one though.

Al

[WarPig1976]

It's hard for me to tell one way or the other, but Birch wood can also have tiger strips.

[Homer]

It was suggested to me a number of times if looks like black bean. Black bean is one of the wood types they experimented with just post WW1 and birch is another. I've looked at the samples on display in the SAF museum and this does not resemble the birch example but ivd really got no idea.

[ufo8mydog]

Looking at the stripes maybe it's Tiger Wood(s) (yes I know don't give up my day job and become a comedian)

All jokes aside I have no idea what it is but it looks beautiful.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Yes, "tiger striped" walnut. Which, according to a "woodologist" of my acquaintance, is not a specific variety of walnut (although some varieties may show it more frequently than others), but a particular type of growth and the (fortunate) way it was cut. I have one that has appeared previously.

Attachment 53825Attachment 53824

[Homer]

Yep that looks a lot like it Patrick.

[muffett.2008]

Definately walnut, was used again during wood shortage between 1940-41, before Coachwood supplies were up and running.
If you pull the nosecap, you should find the Lithgow star on the end of the timber.

Definately not Tassie Blackwood, it is actually a lighter timber........if you remember the forewood with the strange through bolt I was asking about, I took it to a cabinet maker who identified it as Blackwood, a quick spray with a foaming cleaner to get the crap out, a wipe with wax and lo and behold, it matched the sample perfectly.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I would doubt any serious use of black bean (Castanospermum australe).

The seed pods (beans) are quite toxic, (though supposedly edible if thoroughly cooked). and the natural chemicals in the timber can give you a nasty rash.

And for the cabinet and/or stock-makers, here is a handy reference to some of the less pleasant attributes of timber.

Timber Health Hazards

After all, a tree has to have some defences against attack whilst alive and growing. It's just a problem sometimes that said defences survive long after the tree has "demised".

[Bruce_in_Oz]

But WAIT!!..

There's MORE!!

Our taxes at (useful) work:

Wood properties and uses of Australian timbers

Includes: Queensland. Maple, Coachwood, Queensland Walnut, etc.