Eucalyptus Trees

[Bugscuffle]

The thread on this forum about a quote on the building of the trans-continental railroad reminded me of a story that I heard a number of years ago. It concerned the question of why there are so many Eucalyptus trees in California.

The story that I heard was that the Northern Pacific railroad one of the partners that originally spanned the continent used up the vast majority of the timber for railroad ties and the Southern Pacific in their effort to span the continent with a southern route went looking for a source of wood for cross ties. They found it in Australia in the form of Eucalyptus trees. They grew incredibly fast and were of strong, hard wood. They imported the trees and planted them in orchards in California, whole forests of them. Either the trees came to maturity just about the time that the railroad reached the California desert or they also imported a large number of Eucalyptus wood ties for their railroad to use while their forests of railroad ties were maturing. The railroad engineers laid the track through the desert using the Eucalyptus ties. By the time that the railroad was ready to carry traffic, the ties had sat in the sun and dried out the ties and they had twisted themselves up like pretzels. Oh well, back to the drawing board, but what to do about the forests of Eucalyptus trees? They just left them and the trees took off like a prairie fire and spread all over California. The desert provided a natural barrier to the California trees, so they remained California's problem to this day.

Now, is this story true? 

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

Well I suppose there is an element of truth to the story.  I have not heard of any involvment of the railroad but was a gentleman by the name of Elwood if memory serves, that planted a couple hundred acres in the Santa Barbara area during the 1870's or 80's.  Many others then followed suit planting them for lumber, by early 1900 there were over 100 companies growing the tree for lumber.  Probably a sound idea with one minor problem .... the tree needs to be over 75 to 125 years old to produce stable lumber.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Well I suppose there is an element of truth to the story.  I have not heard of any involvment of the railroad but was a gentleman by the name of Elwood if memory serves, that planted a couple hundred acres in the Santa Barbara area during the 1870's or 80's.  Many others then followed suit planting them for lumber, by early 1900 there were over 100 companies growing the tree for lumber.  Probably a sound idea with one minor problem .... the tree needs to be over 75 to 125 years old to produce stable lumber.

Hi,

As an amateur woodworker, I should pop in .... there is a new/old product called Lyptus. It seems that the trees in Australia were gnarly with all kinds of branches ... but extremely strong and, due to their high resin/oil content (second I am told only to teak), make very good nautical and outdoor furniture ....

The problem is the grain .... almost as hard as oak , it can be daunting to blades: the grain is not too linear and I am told it is hard to get a straight piece ....

Enter the Amazon ... much of the rain forest was cut down to feed cattle and make ranches ... but the soil was only inches thick and tended to blow away ... the answer? Burn/slash more forest!

Now that the pendulum has swung its course, it was found that Eucalyptus, if planted very close toghether, tended to compete for light. The result was long grain with very little large branches ....

Now called just Lyptus.

And here is further reading from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyptus

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Great information, pards!  Very interesting! ... And I love the smell.  Do you get the samer smell from cutting the wood?  That would make for a very aromatic wood shop!

[Bugscuffle]

Great information, pards!  Very interesting! ... And I love the smell.  Do you get the samer smell from cutting the wood?  That would make for a very aromatic wood shop!

That would be very convenient for me. I could have a rocking chair that auto applies Ben-Gay. Just what I need for my old bones!

[Eloy Santa Cruz]

Interesting. I did not realize they were confined to California. I have several on my property and in Nov of 1982, a storm took down three of them. One tree was almost six feet in diameter. It took many days to cut them and split. I don't remember how many cords I got out of them, but I burned wood in the fireplace all winter for many years.

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

That would be very convenient for me. I could have a rocking chair that auto applies Ben-Gay. Just what I need for my old bones!

Building a rocking chair sounds like a lot of work ... I just keep a water trough full and dip each morning. 

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Building anything with Eucalyptus. I am told, almost requires finding the right turn of grain to make the product ...

The joy of Lyptus (it is basically the same tree or a close cousin) is that it is commercially grown two or three feet apart from each other ... and mature in about 10 iyears the tropics as opposed to the thirty in the cooler climes of Australia ...

But it is the close together growth that keeps them fighting for light, with small branches at the top to feed the trees ... not unlike how Yankees used to grow pine for masts back when a grandfather set a stand of woods for his grandson ... hoping that, like them, they would become shipwrights too ...

Her is a one page fairly accurate synopsis on Lyptus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyptus

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi again,

I was reading an article on pre-WWI  woodworking downeast they said that in decent areas that the great-grandfather of a man would plant pine and oak close together so that it would fight for sunlight and result in trees that were straight grain and had no large branches. They would eventually be used to build the masts and wooden boats that this county was founded on ....

They would do the same in boggy area for Hackamatack (I.e. a nothern style cyprus tree). The roots were used to make sharp curved ribs when they were too small to steam bend ... like on dories, Whitehalls and peapods.

The thing that had died was the planting. After WWI no one put the seeds in the ground, hoping that their great grandsons would be wood workers and would cherish what their UNKNOWN great grandfather had planted for them ....

TTFN,

[Slamfire]

 Would this wood be good for pistol grips , the color is varied,if the grain is tight why not???
What about checkering, carving,shaping?





   Hootmix.

[Herbert]

There is a huge varity of Eucaluptus trees,quick and slow growing,soft to steel hard,very few of them are suitable for gun stocks,mainly because the best of them are to heavy and the lighter wood just to soft,Coachwood Black Bean and Queensland maple and others have been used with some sucess but it is not as good as Wallnut.Most of the Eucalyptus trees growing in plantations is a varity of Tasmainian Blue gum very quick growing but to soft and unstable for gunstocks,though it has been tryed with some sucess,it really needs to be Kilim or mircrowave dryed

[Steel Horse Bailey]

OK, not gunstocks, but how about Revolver stocks?  That's what he was asking, I think.  I'd think that about ANY wood could be used on a revolver.  Even Balsa.  It wouldn't be practical or strong, but it'd work.  For a short while, anyway.

I'd think that eucalyptus would have a nice smell, but I suppose the smell would fade with age.  Newly cut wood would probably be very fragrant, right?

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Steel Horse,

I cut some stock that had been sitting in the 110 plus degree heat of Sacramento Summers ... but I don't remember any fragrance ... lots of pitch but not as much fragrance as I was expecting ...But it cold be the heat where it was stored ...

BTW, I am slowly making some cross/rest sticks out of it ... I will put pics online when I am done ...

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Cool!

I have almost zero woodworking experience.  Perhaps the fragrance is noticeable only when freshly cut.  Or not at all.  Seeing lots of pitch sounds like it would be normal, plus more noticeable due to the heat.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Cool!

I have almost zero woodworking experience.  Perhaps the fragrance is noticeable only when freshly cut.  Or not at all.  Seeing lots of pitch sounds like it would be normal, plus more noticeable due to the heat.

Steel Horse Bailey,

Mostly it means a lot more cleaning of cutting surfaces, or the blades 'burn into the wood ....*S*

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Aha.


I learn so much from these posts!  I understand about "gumming up" tools.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Steel Horse Bailey,

Which in turn (the 'gunk') gets left on cut edges, giving it a 'burnt' look that is usually sanded away or joined away using clean sandpaper or a clean joiner sp?). One just has to leave an extra 1/8" of wood for the sanding/joining ...

TTFN,

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi,

I am told that anything you can do with oak can be done with 'Lyptus ... think of it as an oak with the resin of a teak ...