 I remember in the early 60s going to the hardware store with Dad to buy a new axe handle for the winter firewood splitting. Dad used to break lots of handles. He was a lousy shot and managed to miss his foot by only inches on several occasions. But that didn't stop him being finikity in choosing an axe handle. He never bought
Hickory because it was too dear. Spotted Gum or Tallowwood were his handles of choice. He would pick a heavy one with no grain defects. He'd take it home and soak the tenon end in linseed oil so it wouldn't split when he drove a steel wedge into it once the axe head was fitted over it. Sure enough it was a solid fit and I cannot remember the head ever flying off. But neither do I remember the handle lasting a season.
Tim Collins, a young Melbourne designer, uses the same Spotted Gum axe handles for furniture in his Realax stools. He buys shorts of wide timber from Urban Salvage for fashioning the seats, so we thought we'd buy a few of his Realax stools for sitting on around our showroom. The kids love them as seats and they work well as side tables.
 Baltic Pine
120 x 20mm Rate $100.00/m2 (380m2):
The Geelong waterfront
(Deakin campus) has yielded a few thousand metres of 150 x 28mm scuffed and watermarked boards which we successfully dried and remilled to
120 x 20mm for reuse in new flooring projects. The timber is Pinus Sylvestris
- also known as Scots Fir or Red Baltic, and shows a pink tinge to dense,
close-grained heartwood. This is distinct from the paler gold sapwood, and boards often display a ribboned effect of gold and
pink-gold. However this batch shows some faint discoloration of the sapwood by brown and
greenish-brown tint, and the sapwood is a muted colour lacking the characteristic pale brightness
- due possibly to watermarks over time.
Red Baltic boards remilled can be installed as a tightly-fitting floor and still carry a certain timelessness. Some timbers are no longer available as new forest product with the finer grain and darker tones that age and oxidation provide.
Kauri Pine 70 x 20mm Rate $96.00/m2 (270m2):
If the lack of brightness in Baltic Pine disappoints - or the desire for
spun-gold pine is too great, then visit this Kauri Pine floor at Spotswood. Remilled out of
100 x 28mm age-worn feedstock, these timbers always look fantastic laid and polished.
Brushbox 60 x 19mm Rate $96.00/m2 (120m2):
Again - the reprofiled harvest of an industrial board. This is an
even-toned batch of Brushbox with the odd flicker of injury or nailhole that only adds to its appeal.
Tallowwood 80 x 19mm Rate $105.00/m2 (120m2):
A muted, grey, faded richness in this board makes it special. I'm always asked for
'tiger-striped' batches of recycled hardwood - and though I wince somewhat at the expression, I understand the appeal. Dense hardwoods exhibit tight patterns of surface checking and often exude tannins as an emphatic highlight to this feature. At other times they are infiltrated by grime and discoloration from past use. This is a cracker of a floor but only vaguely
'tiger-like' in pattern.
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