Hardwood treasures of the South Pacific

l\ ENSELY wooded thoug,h nor l/ densely populated, the South Pacific's Solomon lslands are heavily committed to exporting tropical hardwoods.

Situated I,500 miles north ol Sydney, Australia, and east of Papua New Guinea, the chain of volcanic islands extends for 900 miles, consisting of Guadalcanal, San Cristobal, Choiseul. Gizo. Malaita. the Santa Cruz lslands, and many islets. The smaller islets are no more than Iow coral atolls with enclosed lagoons. The larger islands rise to high, rugged peaks covered by tropical rain florests, containing a mix of kauri pine and hardwoods such as Australian white birch, water gum and kauvula.

In fact, 930/o of the Solomons' 16,000 square miles are forests and woodlands. Timber is second only to fish as the islands' top export.

Australian white birch (,5<'hizomeria ovata) is also known as hambia, malafelo and bea bea in the Solomon lslands; schizomeria in Papua New Guinea, and crabapple, humbug or squeaker in Australia. The species has a very wide sapwood which blends into the creamy-brown heartwood. Grain is fairly straight to interlocked, texture fine and even.

The wood is average in weight, strength and steam bending properties, but non-durable. It dries with little degrade and medium movement in service, and is easily worked, glued, stained and polished to a good finish. Uses include colTin boards, turnery, shelving, interior joinery, plywood, match splints, furniture framing, furniture, cabinetry and decorative veneers.

Water gum includes numerous species from the family Myrtac'eae grouped and collectively sold as PNG water gum. lt is also found in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea as kelat and in Australia as satin ash.

Properties are widely varying: heartwood color from gray-brown to reddish-brown to chocolate-brown with a purple cast; grain from

Story at a Glane

Rugged Solomon lslands north of Australia ar€ 9ifo/o covered by tropical rain iorests. big export business batures diverse selection of hardwoods.

straight to interlocked, wavy or irregularl texture from medium to fine, and weight from moderate to heavy. Moderate in strength and durability, it is prone to end splitting and face checking when kiln dried lrom green. lt works fairly easily with a blunting effect on cutting edges. Pre-boring is required for nailing. lt accepts glue, stain and polish.

Water gum is used lor furniture and cabinet work, ship building, general construction and joinery, light flooring, tool handles, turnery, sporting goods, hardboards and blackboards. Treated wood goes into piles and railway ties, selected logs into decorative veneers.

Less suited for rougher applications is kauvula ( Endospermum medullosum), also called endospermum, sasa and hongopo by Solomon lslanders. lt is also grown in Papua New Guinea as New Guinea basswood and Fiji.

Upon exposure, kauvula's heartwood matures from cream-yellow to straw-biscuit. The grain is usually straight, but occasionally interlocked or wavy, and coarse in texture.

The light, soft, weak, non-durable wood has poor strength and steam bending properties, making it unsuitable for construction work. It does work easily with hand and machine tools, yet tends to be woolly due to interlocked or wavy grain. Straight-grained material provides a clean, smooth finish. lt nails, screws and glues well, and may be stained or polished to a nice finish.

Selected grades are used for furniture, cabinetry, light framing, internal joinery, light flooring and turnery. It also goes into plywood and decorative veneers for paneling and doors.

Engineered Wood Products

(Continued from page 9) xl2 has a2,900 psi bending strength rating.

These products can be attractive and suitable for exposed application such as cathedral ceilings or skylight headers as well as structural uses. They also come in a variety of sizes with lengths up to 66 feet and standard widths up to 5-l/2 inches.

The markets for engineered products are growing rapidly. The LVL market is expected to double within 10 years and the demand for l-beams is projected to double in just five years. We will be seeing more usage of untraditional species.

The fourth paradigm shift in the industry is that of delighting the customer instead of racing towards production records. Historically, the forest products industry has been production driven with little distinction between competitors' products, a deafear towards requests for customer service and sometimes only a passing interest in product quality.