Saturday morning was spent at my mate Dirk’s farm sorting through some wood he recently cleared from a patch of scrub. I’m not sure what the clearing was for precisely but I was more than happy to take up the offer of scavenging for some nice timber.
The stuff I was mainly interested in was the Silver Wattle; I don’t know much about botany but I believe it is from the same family as the famous Tasmanian Blackwood. Ultimately I don’t really care how highly valued the timber is; for what I plan to use it for the appearance is most important.
I was unsure what it would be like, to be honest, but after we ripped the first few we got a pretty good idea what it looked like – very nice indeed. Dirk’s son Michael did the ripping with a massive Stihl chainsaw fitted with a special ripping chain; Dirk manned the tractor and I did very little (bit of manual donkey work).
All in all I managed about a tonne of green wattle; it was all I could fit in my trailer and ute, a very productive and enjoyable day. It will take a couple of years for the timber to air dry and then I can mill it into smaller pieces and, at this stage, plan to use it for some trinket boxes or trays.
Steve Brookes
Blue Swallow Designs 