Thread: Rewarewa for furniture?

I've got a line on a rewarewa tree that was knocked over recently, and am thinking about turning it into boards and making a dining table out of it.

Has anyone worked rewarewa into a large piece of furniture? Usually you see it used as a contrasting piece or inlay, so I'd be interested to see what's out there.

I'm in no hurry, drying it will take years so I can spend a bit of time planning.

Google says;
“Rewarewa is hard to dry with severe distortion (considerable tangential shrinkage) and cracking, but when dry it is heavy, hard and very wear resistant.”

A conversation with a native saw-miller would be useful I’m sure

It’ll definitely be in the paint the ends and leave in the shed for a decade or so, type timber I’d say.

It is used for brake blocks on hydro electric generators.
Soaked in tallow.
The guys who specialize in native timber source it for us.
Will check who they are and get back to you as maybe worth a bit.
Woodwork class 1972 I/we made little rulers and pot stands with contrasting wood and used rewarewa.
Doesn't burn.

It needs to ideally be quarter sawn if you want the most character from it.

Rewarewa is one of the most unstable timbers in NZ. It shrinks / expands significantly as atmosphefic misture content / humidity changes. Once properly sawn into overdimensioned boards it requires slow drying in filleted and top weighted stacks under cover and dried to 12% moisture content. Next plane it to required dimensions and seal it so no further moisture uptake is possible. Expect less than 50% utilisable recovery from any solid log. In short it is difficult to manage and main use is as a thin decorative timber rather than large structural.

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

I've got a line on a rewarewa tree that was knocked over recently, and am thinking about turning it into boards and making a dining table out of it.

Has anyone worked rewarewa into a large piece of furniture? Usually you see it used as a contrasting piece or inlay, so I'd be interested to see what's out there.

I'm in no hurry, drying it will take years so I can spend a bit of time planning.

Try theses guys
https://www.rarefind.co.nz/

Thanks Gents

I'll go and have a good look at the tree, and proceed very carefully from there. I think a detail section in the middle of the table and possibly using it in the stretchers could be a good compromise.

Fortunately I'm in no hurry.

A Rewarewa came down a few weeks ago in the strong southerlies we were having - its only about 14-16" or so diameter but i had similar thoughts to Ross about it ... is sapstain an issue with them? if so are there any recommendations?

Sapstain is a fungal attack which occurs with moisture content loss as a log dries. Can be avoided by fully immersing log under water eg in a deep water filled ditch until such time (a few weeks)as your ready to break it down.

beautiful grain...hard as the hobbs of hell...brother got a set of riot battens made from it for freestyle karate...the fella who turned them for him said very hard to work and when in use they dented Austalian hard wood!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Woody

Rewarewa is one of the most unstable timbers in NZ. It shrinks / expands significantly as atmosphefic misture content / humidity changes. Once properly sawn into overdimensioned boards it requires slow drying in filleted and top weighted stacks under cover and dried to 12% moisture content. Next plane it to required dimensions and seal it so no further moisture uptake is possible. Expect less than 50% utilisable recovery from any solid log. In short it is difficult to manage and main use is as a thin decorative timber rather than large structural.

@Woody, you’d wonder why god created this shit timber, only redeeming factor is it looks good?

Early in my career I worked as a tech in FRI lab where slivers of Rewarewa were used as the control to measure sample wood dimensional changes vs expt kiln drying schedules and moisture content research, so it did have one useful characteristic

Originally Posted by Maca49

@Woody, you’d wonder why god created this shit timber, only redeeming factor is it looks good?

Well...God DID create 'Blonds'

'Allegedly'...