PAULOWNIA - Timber.

[Stephen Georgiou]

Good fellows, I have a mate who is building a boat out of PAULOWNIA.

Tests by the University of Southern Queensland of Western Red Cedar and Paulownia showed that Paulownia had better compression and shear qualities. When this is coupled with the comparative density at 11% moisture of 275Kg/m3 for Paulownia and 450Kg/m3 for Western Red Cedar it makes Paulownia lighter but stronger.

from http://www.paulownia-timber-sales.com.au/Paulownia.htm
Has any one had experience with this timber. could it be useful for kids arrow and lighter poundage bows?
All comments will be appreciated.
Regards SG

[longbow steve]

Hi Stephen, Paulonia or empress?? from what I have seen it is way to light and soft but the sample I saw may not be typical of all timber.
The trees were marketed to farmers/property owners as a plantation that could be harvested in about 10years. An interesting tree with meter wide leaves in some cases. Steve

[longbowinfected]

From asking my forestry friends Paulonia is sort of viewed as a trendy get rich thing like goats, llamas, johovar, and other newish farming trends. The common comment made is that the product is greatly variable each lineal metre per tree and between trees on the same plot. Another is that it is soft/light.
That is what was said about Monterey Pine when it first came to Oz many years ago.....it was bagged out as rubbish suitable only for boxes and palletts. Now after research, better growing, better marketting we know and use a lot of it....we now call it Radiata Pine.
I suspect the current intent is fast growth for cash cropping for the fibre/paper market and I would expect that it is adequate for that purpose.
There are new Australian technologies where poles can be improoved by microwaving and compressing, injecting with preservatives, even metals so I expect that if the timber is poor it can be improved.
Time may see some improvement/greater appreciation of the resource.

Kevin

[Steven J]

I have a tree in the yard that I planted for summer shade over the kids cubby house. It started out as a cutting with a leaf the size of a 50c piece from the local markets. It grew to about 5m in height in the first 3 years. Our tree has multiple trunks as the frost killed the apical bud in the first year causing it to branch out. After 5 years of growing the main trunk has a diameter of about 35-40cm, with 4 other trunks about 15cm at the base. The leaves are as big as a dinner plate.

If you can find some in suitable sizes, test it out for arrows and bow and let the rest of us know how it goes.

Steve

[Gringa Bows]

about 14years ago i helped a couple of mates start a paulonia plantaion,started with 500 cuttings let them get to about 4-5 mt.i think it was just a summer from memory then when they dropped there leaves in autumn we chopped them all out cut there roots into 8in. segments put them in pots in a hot house and ended up with about 5000 suckers then planted 3000 on a block near gympie last time i saw them was about two years later they were about 6-8in.thick,i think they sold the block since then but i would love to see them now if they're still going.another name i heard they were called in malaysia i think it was, is jaded dragon.but to answer your question no i would'nt know.................Rod

[otis.drum]

are yo looking to use it in selfbows?

to say that it is better than western red isn't saying much if you are wanting to selfbow it i wouldn't think. not that i'm an expert on it, but ceder certainly doesn't strike me as a quality selfbow wood.

is it a pretty wood.

[jape]

Stephen, I made some arrows from it, it was too light for even my 35 lb longbow (just over 200 gn if I remember right). I didn't follow up with thicker shafts, barreling etc. but I think it could make kids arrows.

The grain wasn't particularly straight in the bits I had but you could select for that and as always you have to look out for run out. It is open and soft. You can dent it with your finger nail. Somewhere between balsa and radiata to work, similar to western red (the modern crap anyway) but it didn't seem to split as much as that can.

I have four 25mm x 25mm x 1 meter lengths to give away if you (or anyone) want some to play with. Just PM me your address. I have contact details somewhere for a grower who has started to work it and market it himself.

[Stephen Georgiou]

Thanks for the offer jape I have some offcuts available from my boat building mate I will give it a go for the kids arrows.
I think the stuff I have seen is very straight grained so I will see what happens.