Is Silky Oak good for furniture?
Resistant to wood rot, Northern Silky Oak was once used extensively in Queensland for house framing, cladding, external window frames and boat building. In recent times, better management of this resource and restricted felling, means Northern Silky Oak is now used almost exclusively in fine furniture and cabinetry.
Is Silky Oak good for woodworking?
Traditional uses for silky oak include decorative veneer, architectural woodwork, parquet and plank flooring, cabinetry, furniture and interior joinery. In Australia, it is also used for building construction work and shutters, as well as cask staves. It looks very similar to the Australian silky oak or lacewood.
What is the best finish for silky oak?
Today I decided to treat the silky oak like milo ( a wood so oily that the best finish is just wax). Back to the naphtha and the lathe and once the wood was bare again, I applied a coat of Liberon Black Bison paste wax and it worked! The lamps look fabulous and will go the fair after all that.
Is Silky Oak a hardwood or softwood?
Silky Oak has a density of 590 kg/m³ when dried and a Janka hardness of 3.9 kN, so is fairly soft and light for a hardwood. It is often used for cabinets and dressers and is available as a veneer or solid lumber.
Is silky oak strong?
The word “robusta” refers to the fact that the timber is strong like real oak. The freshly split wood has a silky texture, and a pattern and light colour resembling English oak – hence the common name “silky oak”.
What does a silky oak look like?
Silky oak, Grevillea robusta, is a medium to fairly large tree with light gray, rouge, bark with mainly closely spaced furrows. The trunk tends to be straight and tall. Flowers form on the plant in season (in Hawaii, April and May) and extend through the summer. Flowers are striking, abundant, and yellow to orange.
Is Silky Oak toxic?
Australians have been warned to take care when coming into contact with the beloved silky oak tree – as experts reveal the plant is extremely poisonous. ‘Like other grevilleas the silky oak also contains tridecyl resorcinol, which causes an allergic reaction leading to contact dermatitis.
What does silky oak look like?
Can you sand silky oak?
Timber with a more open grain, particularly silky oak, benefits from wetting down after sanding first to raise the grain. When dry, sand with about 400 to 600 grit sandpaper and then burnish.
How can you tell if oak is silky?
Like other woods that exhibit the strongest figure in quartersawn pieces, (such as Sycamore), Silky Oak has the most pronounced figure and displays the largest flecks when perfectly quartersawn; this is due to the wood’s large rays, whose layout can be seen the clearest when looking at the endgrain.
Do Silky Oaks have invasive roots?
Silky oaks have been declared an environmental weed in parts of New South Wales and Victoria where it grows outside its native distribution range. They’re also considered an invasive or invader plant in Hawaii and South Africa.
Is silky oak fast growing?
Silk Oaks are majestically handsome trees succeeding and flower in temperate or tropical climates. The particular species is a fast growth rate evergreen tree reaching up to incredible heights between 20′ – 100′ feet.