Blush Alder Timber – Sloanea australis

Blush Alder AKA Alder Blush

Wood Appearance

Colour – Heartwood usually ink to reddish-brown with some distinction between heartwood and sapwood.

Grain – Close and even textured. There is no pronounced figure. However, on dressing, a silky sheen is obvious on the surfaces.

Wood Properties

Density – 625 kg/m3

Durability – Class 4 – Suitable for use only in continuously dry situations under cover, well ventilated, clear of the ground and fully protected from the weather and other dampness.

Hardness – Firm (rated 4 on a 6 class scale) in relation to indentation and ease of working with hand tools

Identification Features

Sapwood – Lighter colour than heartwood and can be differentiated from it

Heartwood – Pink to reddish-brown

Texture – Fine and uniform, grain occasionally interlocked

Wood Structure

Growth Rings – Absent

Vessels – Numerous, very small, indistinct without a lens, solitary and in radial groups of less than four. Tyloses and deposits absent.

Parenchyma – Not visible under a lens

Rays – Of two kinds: (a) fairly large and visible without a lens and (b) fine, difficult to see even with the aid of a hand lens

Other Features

Burning Splinter Test – A match size splinter burns with a reddish exudation to a fine white partial ah