Timber Profiles: No.2 Huon Pine
Huon pine is such a beautiful timber to work with. Its soft, fragrant and comes up a beautiful golden colour when polished. It has an amazing smell, very sweet almost like honey. This is due to the higher resin and oil content in the timber. The smell of Huon always reminds me of cutting veneers for furniture in the old workshop. The aroma would fill the workshop as we cut the flinches. As a little random side note the sawdust is very good for smoking fish.
The oil content of the timber made it highly prized for boat building, as it is far less susceptible to rot then many other species. Its ability to not rot when submerged is quite amazing, the majority of Huon Pine I use in my work has actually been submerged for many years in Lake Pedder. The lake was flooded in the 70’s for a hydroelectric scheme. To extract the timber they use underwater chainsaws.
I like to incorporate Huon in rings, as it’s light, physically and in colour and it’s also beautiful to the touch.