Color/Appearance: Heartwood is reddish brown. Somewhat well defined sapwood is a light yellowish brown. Very large aggregate rays produce a lace-like pattern on quartersawn surfaces. Rays are so large, some pieces have visible ray flecking on flatsawn surfaces. Grain/Texture: Grain is straight to slightly interlocked. Uniform medium texture with good natural luster. Rot Resistance: No data available. Workability: Can be difficult to work on account of its hardness. Tearout can occur during planing or surfacing, especially on quartersawn surfaces in the rays. Turns and finishes well. Odor: No characteristic odor. Allergies/Toxicity: Besides the standard health risks associated with any type of wood dust, no further health reactions have been associated with Australian buloke. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicityand Wood Dust Safetyfor more information. Pricing/Availability: Seldom available outside Australia. Occasionally available as small turning blocks or craft blanks. Prices are high for an imported hardwood. Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, while the tree species itself may not be directly threatened by extinction, certain stands in Victoria and New South Wales are listed as endangered by the government of Australia. Common Uses: Knife handles, flooring, fine furniture, and turned objects. Comments: Australian buloke is commonly reported as the hardest wood in the world. This is based upon a single data source and may not give the best representation of all testing and data available. Consequently, with as many data points taken into consideration as possible, Australian buloke ranks at #21 overall on the poster Worldwide Woods, Ranked by Hardness. For more information, please consult the video discussion, Quest for the Hardest Wood in the World. The rays in Allocasuarina and Casuarina species are so large, ray fleck is considered to be best displayed on flatsawn surfaces (most lacewood-type woods only achieve a respectable ray fleck when quartersawn). When sheoaks are quartsawn, the ray fleck can become too large and irregularly patterned for smaller pieces. Not closely related to true oaks (Quercus genus), the etymology of the common name bull-oak is ambiguous. Both woods share a similar ray-flecked appearance on quartersawn surfaces. |