Gday ANZLF

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Hi Jim and Kim
Don't think it was karri - that sounds Ocker, guess is Kauri.
Yep it is old stuff and the Kiwi boatbuilder's planking wood of preference in years gone by. Highly prized by shipwrights in the sailing ship days for masts - grew 100 feet dead straight without a knot and with wonderfull tight grain. Takes steam bending wonderfully. Not commercially grown and the recovered (swamp) stuff is said to be good for electrics - often heavy as lead. Can still be had as a veneer from recovered wood but the living trees have living treasure status. See one of these kings of the New Zealand forest and you might understand. There was the "Square Kauri" on Coromandel. Bloody thing had a square section trunk about 16 feet by 16 feet by (my guess) 60-80 feet to its first branch - bloody huge. Might still be there. They reckoned it was a thousand year's old when I was a brat.
As the availability of Kauri declined for boatbuilders Kahikatea became second choice for planking and it shares many of its [kauri's] properties but is not so massive a tree.
I will suss a site for NZ fancy wood but would like to add my penny's worth here.
Boatbuilders around the world picked woods that did what they wanted and funnily enough, for structural stuff, the boatbuilder's needs and the luthiers wants run on similiar courses. Please note I use the term "boat builder", not "shipwright". Wooden ships tended to have other issues.
In terms of refining that, find out what the boatbuilders in your/a region used for planking their more delicate creations and follow their lead for sound boxes. What they used for ribs, stringers, keels or frames may give you a lead for necks. What they used for thole pins might be a lead for bridges. What they gave a wide berth to might still be useful for electric's wings.
Back to my take - I use veneers and I don't care what it's called. If the grain looks right for sound; for me tight, thin, straight, uniform and regular in three dimensions, it will give a reasonable reponse to resonance. Mix and match, add fibre if needs be but be dictated to by "tonewood", as named by dogmatics, at your peril.


Happy New Year from Kiwi.