Waratah- a nice timber for necks

[James Mc]

This is a timber to grab if you come across it, NSW Waratah (Telopea speciosissima). I was looking for a strong pale timber I could laminate some silky oak between for a neck. Knowing where I could get some old Waratah boards from at the right price I decided to give it a go.

The timber
Known in the olden days as chumwood it has medullary rays much like silky oak but finer and almost white. In general it is a pale timber with a large variety of colour shades throughout the average board, these can give it a blue greenish grain pattern. It sands to a fine finish and has no pours to fill when polishing. The small boards I got were cut and finished 25 years ago and are as flat, true and crack free today as when they were first cut. Because it comes from a small tree it is unlikely that you will ever find any big enough for back and sides, but is a winner for necks in my book (best guess would be about 675 kg/m3).

A couple of photos

First a 100mm wide board of Waratah sitting on Queensland Maple then an offcut that I’ve rounded the corner of at a 12mm radius

[Kim]

Looks real sweet James, must add Telopea speciosissima to the list, I think it would look great for bindings as well, sort of like a Ceylon Satin Wood with medullary rays.

Cheers

Kim