What NZ woods are these?

[auscab]

Hi folks. Hope your all well and having fun . Nothing Musical about this sorry . Ive been rebuilding a large workshop and playing my guitars . No building of them yet. I hope to get the time again one day to pull out all the gear I bought and paid for and start again.

I have a NZ wood ID problem and I started asking around trying to solve the questions the normal ways .
I didn't get the bright idea of asking you guys for a week. Hopefully someone knows some of them .

Its a repair job I may have coming . The woodwork isn't a problem, but wood ID and getting some is going to be a problem .

The piece belongs to a young Mum who moved here from NZ . Her grandad made the table and when she inherited it she had it sent over . Not knowing how to treat such stuff she left a pot plant on it and when she had to rush off to hospital to have a baby the last thing she did was over water all the plants . When she came home some time later and lifted the pot off, this is what she saw . Poor girl !

Any ideas on the timbers and is there anyone in NZ who sells such woods ? Maybe I could get in touch with an Antique restorer over there ? Here is some pictures . Rob .

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[seeaxe]

Do you know that they are NZ woods? They're all veneers and I would guess there's not a lot of native wood made into veneer. Common to see rimu veneer (reddish colour) and tawa (cream/white) but not many others. Nothing looks too familiar, suspect veneer has been stained or discoloured with lacquer and age.

Sorry cannot be of more help.

[auscab]

This sort of table , veneered like that was big in NZ . Lots of them show up . Even here in Australia . We just never need to know exactly what the timbers are . We as in the guys working in the Antique business . English made ones show up and they normally have easily identifiable timbers that were common use at the time in the UK , same with Australian ones . The Aussie ones are not so common . It didn’t take off so much here ? The woods can be sawn or if later like this tabke , sliced veneers .
So this is known to have been made in NZ and some of the woods look to be NZ . Some of the others are so bland it makes it hard to say . They even look like some bland Aussie timbers . It could be a mix . The repairs will have to be a mix if they can’t be identified . Matched up with the best available stuff .
Numbers 1 2 and 4 look NZ like and the others most likely are but are the more bland ones .
Rob

[seeaxe]

Well if lots of them show then your best bet will be to find a similar one and nick the veneers from that.
Most NZ timbers are bland, Kauri, Rimu, Tawa, Totara etc. The darker ones in the middle might be Puriri. None of the grain patterns look like NZ timber to me.

There's a place called Rarefind timber in Hamilton NZ that sells a lot of native wood for instruments so has good pictures of them on his site. You might be able to match some grain patterns and or ID them there.

https://www.rarefind.co.nz/

[Andos]

We have a lot of home grown exotic timbers here so they may not all be native.
I am no expert but here is my best guess
1, centre rosette, puriri
2 black maire sapwood
3&7 tanekaha or kaihikatea
4 black maire heart wood
5 matai (varies from a light gold to a deep red gold)
6 tawa, possibly tairere.

Best guess only!
Your biggest problem will be exporting them. Some are only allowed out as a finished product.

Try this guy, he runs a small exotic and native timber supply company for crafters.

Graham Oliver
Www.Treeworx.co.nz

[auscab]

Thanks for the link to Rarefind timber Richard, Ill look into that .
As for cutting up a similar one . I doubt finding such a piece in the condition that it is only worth scrap is slim.

And Thanks Andos the list gives me something to look for in pictures maybe .
Ill give Graham a try at Treeworx.

I had some better pictures sent to me today . With the flash off and given a wipe over with a linseed oil and turps mix which made the flaky finish more transparent . See what you think of this .

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[seeaxe]

The dark central one might have been stained?
The one next to that might be Rewarewa (honeysuckle) very common decorative wood over here.

[Andos]

Puriri is a green coloured wood, which looks like the centre. However it fades to a brown shade over time, depending on how much sunlight it gets.
Rewarewa has a grain structure very similar to London plane. Silvery white wood with very wide strong orangey/red medullary rays.

[auscab]

Thanks again Richard and Andos .
Interesting to know its similar to London Plane Tree . Ive got quite bit of that. I bought a few logs from some gents at a country Mens shed . They sell of excess to the clubs needs and being a community sort of thing they get all sorts of logs donated. I used it in my acoustic build as well for binding .

I guess if it came to using some from my stash of LPT, Ive got the option of being able to cut it from the solid to get the rays lined up the right way for the look .

May as well put a picture of my only guitar built in here as well.

Its LPT binding as well as Heel cap and an end piece in the body as well .

Rob

[auscab]

Just a little more on the New Zealand Timber subject .

I know its not directly instrument related but I do know some of you like an interesting wood story too.
It will complete the thread .

Here is a link to images of Antique New Zealand Specimen Tables . Its interesting to do the same search for Australian and English tables and you see how many more NZ examples exist . There is some mix ups in there as well though .

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Anti ... 3&biw=1109

https://www.google.com/search?q=Antique ... 31&bih=640

https://www.google.com/search?q=Antique ... 31&bih=640

Another special and interesting find this morning . I asked an Antique dealer friend who is from New Zealand about the timbers on the table . He sent me pictures of this ruler he owns .

Rob

[CNCWorksNZ]

Wow!

I used to have one of those Rules at Primary School, some other Pupil broke it though

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