Looks like my last email failed to post on the list.

-----Original Message-----
From: bilcol [mailto:bilcol@b...] 
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2019 11:04 AM
To: 'Tony Blanks' 
Subject: RE: [OldTools] Australian Pine Questions

Thanks for the info Tony.  I had one die a few months ago that was around 13" in
Dia.  I saved a clean 6 foot length and cut up much of the rest for firewood.
Another one that was leaning quite a bit toppled a couple days ago after a good
rain.  It is about 16" in dia near the bottom.  The first limb is about 10 foot
from the base and there are other good sections.  It seems like very nice, hard
wood.  I promised some of it to a neighbor for firewood.  I have a couple others
on our lot.  One is around 16" in dia and probably 80 or 90 feet tall.  My
neighbor in the back has a roughly 36" (90cm) dia Australian pine that has to be
100 ft tall (sorry for all the archaic units) just over the fence from us.  It
is a really nice tree but hope it does not topple our way during one of our
storms or hurricanes.

Here in Florida the trees are considered invasive since they grow very
vigorously and replace native vegetation.  Here is a link to info:
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/casuarina-species/


Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Blanks [mailto:dynnyrne@i...]
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2019 1:56 AM
To: bilcol 
Subject: Re: [OldTools] Australian Pine Questions

G'day Bill,

I sent this note off to the oldtools server  a few hours ago, but it hasn't
shown up yet.  I don't know if the server is down at present, but I thought I'd
resend the message to you in the hope that you will get it a little sooner this
way.  I'm curious to know how large your trees are.  What length of trunk do you
expect to have to saw up?  The Tasmanian trees rarely have more than 3 or 4 feet
from the ground surface to the first major branch, at which point they develop a
low and widely spreading crown.  So not much potential for usable timber in the
form of planks or boards.

If you want to contact Derek Cohen in Perth his email address is


Regards,

Tony B
Hobart, Tasmania


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [OldTools] Australian Pine Questions
Date: 	Fri, 11 Oct 2019 12:53:51 +1100
From: 	Tony Blanks 
To: 	oldtools 



Hi Bill
> I've had a couple good-sized Australian Pine trees (US name) come down 
> in my yard recently in S Florida. I believe the trees are known as 
> She-Oak in Australia and that they are not related to pines at all.

Correct.  The species you have in Florida is Casuarina equisetifolia, and there
is some information about it here:

https://bie.ala.org.au/species/http://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2911837

It is a tropical and subtropical species, generally found on coastal sites.

> The wood is more
> dense and has a reddish color. Does anyone have experience with using 
> the wood for projects? Wondering about its workability, how it takes 
> stains, if there are special drying considerations or other 
> considerations.

C. equisetifolia doesn't grow here in Tasmania where I live, though there are
other Casuarina species here.  Examples of the Tasmanian species rarely grow
large enough to do much with other than small boxes, turned pens and egg cups
etc. Most of trees large enough to consider sawing have deeply fissured and
folded trunks, so that it is difficult to get slabs or sawn pieces which do not
have bark inclusions.  The pieces I have played with work well, though the
timber is very hard and sharp edges are essential.  Depending on how the log has
been sawn there will be medullary rays as in US oak.  In my experience boards
are difficult to season without warping, cupping, twisting and splitting, but
that may be because the source trees were slow-grown on hard sites, so probably
had plenty of internal stresses to relieve!

Casuarina makes great firewood, though splitting the logs is hard work. It burns
very hot, and local wisdom is that burning Casuarina regularly in a slow
combustion heater will risk burning out the firebox.

If Derek Cohen is on the porch at the moment he will probably have more useful
information: I have seen some quite long and wide Casuarina boards sourced from
Western Australia where Derek lives.

Regards,

Tony B
Hobart, Tasmania