In an experiment where art meets science, a local furniture maker has put Tasmania’s plantation timbers to the test. Source: ABC News
Phillip Blacklow wanted to compare plantation species to more commonly used regrowth timber known as Tasmanian Oak.
He said he wanted to see whether the plantation materials came up to the same standard.
There have been concerns Tasmanian plantation timber would only be good for pulping, not high-end products because of issues with cracking within the sawlogs once they have been milled.
Forestry scientist Dr Chris Harwood said after years of research the problem had been addressed.
“Different methods of cutting the wood and different methods of drying and also steam reconditioning after the timber has been dried, they all had to be tested to come up with the best methods,” he said.
Mr Blacklow put the timber to the test by making three versions of each of his furniture designs – two using different plantation timber species and one using regrowth timber. He said he was pleased with the results.
“The plantation material being slightly softer than the regrowth actually made it more workable,” he said.
Mr Blacklow said speciality timber is limited and plantation timber could fill the void.
“If you rely on a dwindling [supply] and it is realistically a dwindling supply then you either give up or you adapt,” he said.
“You’ve got to have viability, you’ve got to have volume, you can’t just produce one piece of furniture a year and expect to live you need to be able to have enough volume.”
Most of Tasmania’s plantations have been grown for pulp but a percentage has been pruned for sawlogs.
Dr Harwood said more plantation sawlogs would be coming in the next decade.
“The projections are that there’s going to be quite large volumes of this plantation sawlog-grade logs coming through and available for processing in Tasmania starting in the mid to late 2020s,” he said.
He said Mr Blacklow’s experiment demonstrated plantation species could be used to produce high-end products.
“We could write scientific papers about how good these boards are from these plantation sawlogs but it really requires a master craftsman to actually show in this case a viewing is certainly worth a thousand words.”
