The Kauri Wood

Tuesday, 14 June 2022

When we tidied up dad's shed a few months ago we came across a lot of wood.  Most of it was scrap, but there was also a pile of long planks taking up a fair bit of floor space - in fact they made it impossible to access many of the shelves without awkwardly squeezing your feet alongside them.  Those six thick and 3 metre long planks had been there for at least 20 years - Dad had shipped them down from Sydney when he went to clear out his mum's place many years ago.  Mum had previously learnt that these were kauri wood planks, reclaimed by my Sydney grandfather who worked for the Tooth's brewery in Sydney.  He re-routed the wood from a certain tip ending when the brewery's wooden hop vats were replaced with stainless steel ones (which he helped design) a zillion years ago.  It seemed weird to me that the brewery would use such expensive and rare wood in the first place, but in all likelyhood, when the company bought the wood in a job lot a hundred years or so earlier, it probably wasn't valued very highly.

A few months ago I got Zali to help me lift one of those dusty, dirty and insanely heavy planks onto the roof racks of the car and we drove it home. Later that day, after I hauled it singlehandedly off the car, nearly killingmyself in the process I noticed it had a lot of termite damage on the underside. Looking closer still I realised the holes running widthwise through the plank would make it next to impossible to use for anything.  So with much annoyance I dragged the plank around to the side of the house and left it there - thoroughly regretting moving it in the first place (as now I was going to have to get rid of it).  

I went about my business for another month or so (trying to avoid eye contact with the plank lurking next to the wheelie bins) before I suddenly felt inspired to give it another chance.  I pulled out my electric planer and ran it over the top..

Huh, I thought to myself. This might actually be ok.  So I continued planing and sanding and filling the gaps and holes, and leaving other imperfections (for character of course), and staining and sanding then staining again..

Until I eventually decided I actually needed another plank to finish my projects so I took Jett with me and we collected another one. This one was in even worse condition than the first but now I had a solid plan and technique so it didn't matter.

In the end I made a long entertainment 'plank' for the new shack, and 3 bench seats.  The wood is lovely and heavy and has weird holes and termite marks and a long history and I love it.