I recently bought these beautiful slabs of King Billy Pine (athrotaxis selaginioides), a tree that only grows in Tasmania, its very rare, and grows in similar regions and to a similar age as Huon Pine.
These logs were milled in a private forest in Maydena, about 40 years ago. The (then) boys milled the timber with a chainsaw and carried the slabs out on their backs!
The timber somehow ended up at Bruny Island (after been buried underground for some years) and now is in my shed.
I think it’s cut from three logs, one very small. The slabs are all about 2100mm long, up to 700mm wide and 100mm thick.
I counted about 400 year rings on one of the pieces but then gave up. I would say the bigger timber comes from 500 to 600 year old trees.
Its as very soft and durable timber, sought after by boat builders. It is very stable and was also used for windows and doors.
Its very pale in colour, a bit pink (mine looks orange where I sanded into it). The timber is very fine grained and these days very rare.
I’ll leave it to my customers what to make out of it. I have used King Billy for benches in bathrooms before and for smaller pieces.
Now I have started to use some of it for Vanities!
The timber gets a beautiful shine when oiled and has very fine features.
Cabinetmaker specialising in kitchens, bathrooms and anything made from timber.
Bernd Farasin 