Buloke – Dressed – Slab C – 200×22×1300mm

One-off dressed Buloke board with natural edges. 200 × 22 × 1300mm, weighed at 6.5 kg. Pale sapwood strip down one edge and a natural check part of the length.

This price is for one unique board. The photo you see is the board you get.

What it is. Buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) is a she-oak from the inland plains of eastern Australia — Victoria, western New South Wales, southern Queensland. It grows slowly on hard country, and the timber shows it: dense, tight-grained, and shot through with the ray fleck that gives the she-oak family its look. This board is dressed on both faces with the natural edges left on.

What you’d make with it

• Knife scales and handle blocks
• Box sides and lids
• Serving and cheese boards
• Inlay, banding and feature strips

Working notes

• Density. 1,140 kg/m³. This is heavy timber.
• Hardness. Buloke sits at the top of published Janka tables, above ironbark and gidgee.
• Grain. Straight, with ray fleck strongest where the cut runs near-quarter.
• Surface. Dressed faces, natural edges.
• Working. Sharp tooling and a slow feed. It will take the edge off HSS quickly — carbide holds up better.
• Finishing. Sands to a polish with very little help from the finish. Rustins Danish Oil, or EEE Ultrashine then Shellawax on turned work.

What woodworkers say about it. Woodworkers select this timber when they want fleck figure in something that will hold a crisp detail. It stands alone as a feature — you don’t use this in bulk.

The marking on one face

Marker over sanding sealer, so it doesn’t seep into the grain (not likely with this timber anyway).

A light sand with 120 grit and it’s gone.