Web site for Australian Woods

[Gary Mulkey]

Here's a web site that you may want to visit if you're interested in Australian woods for handles: www.aussiefantom.com/.
I have gotten some very nice pieces from them and found Terry to be very easy to deal with.

Gary

[BJHall]

G'Day Guys
Just to add to that a supplier and knifemaking friend of mine also sells some beautiful Australian woods.
His website is Xylo-australis.com.au. He also sells alot of really good stabillised wood.

Regards from Australia
Ben Hall

[Tom Militano]

Ben, are you sure that is the correct web address. I can't get it to open, it keeps coming up "can't find website"
Tom

[Terry Primos]

Oh! Yeah, that's Eugene Dimitriadis. I got a price list from him. The URL I had for Xylo-australis was:

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~woodlink/eugene.htm

I don't know if it's the most current, but I just checked and the link is still working.

[Mike Hull]

Thanks for the links. Here's another one.
http://www.akc.iinet.net.au/woodpage.html

[JossDelage]

Originally posted by Gary Mulkey
Here's a web site that you may want to visit if you're interested in Australian woods for handles: www.aussiefantom.com/.
I have gotten some very nice pieces from them and found Terry to be very easy to deal with.

I agree with that. I bought an amazing piece of Lacey Sheoak from him. Great looking wood - although I don't know if it's going to be useful for knife handles...

JD

[whv]

Great looking wood - although I don't know if it's going to be useful for knife handles

david brodziak uses sheoak on a lot of knife handles, jd.
.
thanx for the links, guys.

[Jason Cutter]

Hi guys, and a big Gday to Ben Hall,

Eugene is the man at XyloAustralis. He lives in my neck of the woods and supplies some of the best materials, particularly stabilised woods of his selection, many of which are local Australian timbers. Eugene is actually a world rated authority on the subject of woods and is involved in the international Wood Collectors Society. You knife collectors thought you had an unusual hobby.

He is my sole supplier of exotic stabilised woods. In Melbourne, he is also the most obvious source of other materials like exotic leathers, Kydex, carbon fibre, MOP, some Micartas. I think a lot of his stabilised woods come from the US. The website will come up if you type xyloaustralis (one word) in your search.

Yes, the Australasian Knife Collectors Society is affiliated to Australian Knifemaking Supplies in Western Australia and I get some very good quality exotic woods from them, especially the desert varieties. They are available in premium and standard varieties of the same species. Those of you who like curly maple, thuya burl and desert ironwood, should try Ringed Gidgee, Curly Jarrah and Laced Sheoak. They all make great handles and finish beautifully. I like stabilised woods, but these natural timbers are fantastic.

I didn't know about aussiefantom, but I'll check that out. Thought I'd give the Aussie contingent a boost. All the best.

Cheers.

[JossDelage]

Reg. Laced Sheoak and Jarrah brul, is there a problem to stabilize it?

Thanks,

JD

[Jason Cutter]

G'DAY Jose,

Sorry, don't know much about stabilising those woods. I don't imagine it should be any problem. The ones I was referring to from the Australian sources are natural woods. The Curly Jarrah I have used was recycled from some 150year-old home fittings and is as tough as brass. It was actually eating up my belts while grinding it ! It responds very well to a hand rubbed hard oil finish. I use Danish oil.

Both are superb timbers. Jarrah is medium to high density, Sheoak is low-to-medium density. Plain Jarrah is quite ordinary looking other than the warm colour, but the Curly or fiddleback stuff is beautiful.

The man to ask in Australia is Eugene Dimitriadis of XyloAustralis. His email address is xyloaustralis@optusnet.com.au . You should contact him.

I'm not sure how I put a link in here. (technology moron)

Hope it helps. Ciao.

[Gary Mulkey]

Joss,

I don't know about the sheoak but the jarrah burl is full of voids and must be filled. I have had good luck using acraglass which will fill the voids and stabilize at the same time. Makes a beautiful handle.

Gary

[Jason Cutter]

Thanks Gary. You're quite right. I've pulled out some unstabilised pieces of various Australian Outback timber burls and many have voids.

I don't think there's any other way to get around it. These woods should be at least partially stabilised. When flattening the woods on a flat sanding sheet, I collect the dust (no larger than 240grit) to fill the holes. It avoids accidentally mismatching colour if using a commercial wood filler .

Gidgee is one of my favourite woods. The "Ringed" or fiddleback mimics Curly Maple. It is dense - equivalent to Ironwood and tight in the patterns and very stable. It polishes very well due to its high natural oil content. However, it doesn't stabilise well. The oil, like those in Rosewood or Cocobolo, act as space fillers and inhibit polymerisation of the resin. If you want to use natural woods, its one of the best.

Another type of timber I like is called Mallee root burl. A much paler, creamy colour, but the figure is to die for.

Cheers.

[JossDelage]

The owner of the site Gary posted is often on eBay BTW:

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sort=3&rows=25

I bought some lacey sheoak from him and I was happy with the level of service. He often also has "beefwood" and I've often wondered about it. It looks nice on the pics.

Another guy who often has Mallee and Jarrah burls is "Carveman". I bought one piece of each from him, and he was nice enough to add 2 or 3 handles worth of lacey sheoak - that's how I found out about this amazing wood.

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sort=3&rows=25

JD

[Mike Hull]

Beefwood is a very dense wood. It can be stabilised, or used plain. It is a very different looking, and beautiful wood from Western Australia. I first worked with the W. Australian woods, from the goldfields, about five years ago. I liked them all.
PS; Another good one is cork.