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I have access to some Red River Gum originally from Australia that was first milled in approximatley 1880.  It's been reclaimed from a bridge.  Has anyone used it for back and sides?  Any comments on it's suitability as a tone wood?  Thanks.

Never heard of "Red River Gum".

There is however a "River Red Gum", Eucalyptus camaldulensis. My reference is "Wood in Australia" by K.R.Bootle. He says:

"A medium to large hardwood found adjacent to most of the inland rivers of mainland Australia. It is a unique eucalypt in that it can stand quite long periods of flooding, and indeed such inundations play a very important role in the maintenance of river red gum forrests. Because ofits occurence as an open woodland stand, trees tend to spread rather than form a long trunk so the length of millable log is usually small.

Heartwood red to reddish to brown. Sapwood to 40mm wide, distinctly paler. Texture relatively fine and even. Grain usually interlocked, often producing an attractive ripple or fiddleback figure. Gum veins common. Air dried density about 900kg/m^3. Needs close stickering and weighted stacks when drying to minimise warping. Some colapse occurs. Shrinkage about 4% radial, 8% tangential; after reconditioning about about 2.5% radial, 4.5% tangential.

Because of the interlocked grain it is necessary to adjust the cutting angle when dressing it. Unsuitable for steam bending because of the difficulty of obtaining the necessary straight grained timber. Provived the grain is straight it has good resistance to surface checking when exposed to the weather" Here endeth the quote.

That being said, I'd give it a go, provided you can find a piece that isn't full of pitch pockets. As for it being unsuitable for steam bending, I'd start out by bending some sides and see how you go before you invest too much time in it. These fox style benders are a little easier on the wood than good old fashioned steam bending (if you've ever built a boat you'll know where I'm coming from) So you might get lucky.

River Red Gum can be a real pretty timber once the stability issues are overcome. Your stuff is probably pretty well seasoned by now too.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Thanks Paul.  We're talking about the same species - my books list some of the common names as Murray River Gum, Queensland Blue Gum, River Red Gum, among other.  This particular wood is very dense and quite red when freshly cut.  Can't really tell what if any figure it may have because it is in large, rough-cut timbers.  I think I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Hey that sounds like neat stuff! I tried to search it on the internet but only came up with trees still standing. You'll have to share some pictures if you do get some cut up soon.... or just invite me over for look-see. 

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I burn red gum on my fire here in Adelaide, South Australia. The stuff is what was left over after they milled red gums in Victoria to supply sleepers (ties for you Americans) for the Adelaide to Melbourne railway. The stuff is hard and dense and very prone to splitting. id consider using it for a solid body electric (weight would have to dealt with) but I dont know about using it for an acoustic.

[QUOTE=kiwigeo] I burn red gum on my fire here in Adelaide, South Australia. The stuff is what was left over after they milled red gums in Victoria to supply sleepers (ties for you Americans) for the Adelaide to Melbourne railway. The stuff is hard and dense and very prone to splitting. id consider using it for a solid body electric (weight would have to dealt with) but I dont know about using it for an acoustic.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I was thinking about the spliting thing too. But if it's been part of a bridge for a hundred years or so, I'd think it'd be ok. That is if you can find a big enough piece that hasn't already split and isn't full of pich pockets.

I've seen some nice furniture that was made from river red gum it seemed pretty stable. The pitch pockets were a feature.

They're also pulling up old sunken logs and milling that too. It looks darker the same way sinker redwood does.

Well, you at least know it's suitable for bridges.*



*Sorry

IIRC, Murray River red gum is a different eucalyptus than the trees we usually call red gum here in the USA. The common red gum (in California) is very unstable. But I have a log (a salvaged urban tree from the SF Bay area) that I believe to be the Murray River red gum that has been very stable. I turned a big bowl from it when it was just felled, and it barely changed shape. After several years, the log only has checks through the sapwood. I could be wrong about the species, but the wood looks a lot like red gum, except for its stability.

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There's a few different types of red gum here too e.g. Sydney red gum. Iirc, those gums in California were imported from Australia, 'cause they wanted trees that would do well in a hot dry environment. Unfortunatly, they also imported our bushfires too.