This is a beautiful example of New Zealand Swamp Kauri. Approximately 50,000 years old, it has incredible luminance, and is just a stunning piece, dragged from the depths of anaerobic mud.
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Stu’s Shed on
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Stu's Shed 
Wow. Is that how it looks just sanded back, or is that finished as well?
It’s sanded and oiled in a special high quality oil Danish mix oil. Me and my partner lived and worked there for a time back in 2008 to 2010. Amazing people …beautiful souls and grate experience.
This is just sanded – no finish or anything has been applied.
It’s going to be scary if I ever do anything more, the visual depth it could gain – is that how black holes are created?
IF I ever do anything with the piece, it will be a long way down track – it has waited 50000 years so far, it can wait a few more for me to get to a skill level that could justify working with it!
Wow!! I’ve never seen anything like that!! I’ve got so many questions.
First, a comment. In regards to what you should do with it, my two cents is to finish it to a polished finish – nothing more than a thin layer of oil – and simply mount it a marble or granite base. This piece is interesting enough as is, without cutting into it. Just looking at a picture of it, I’m drawn into it. The depth is stunning. I could get lost looking at it.
Questions: How did you get your hands on this? I’ve never heard of that species before, can you tell us more about it? It looks like a hardwood, but it’s hard to know looking at a photo. What are some of it’s characteristics? What are the dimensions and how heavy is it?
Whatever you decide to do with the peice, I think it would make for a great podcast episode!
Thanks for putting the time into the site. I really enjoy it.
Dave
Plano, Texas
It is pretty special, not often you get to be a custodian of something so old.
I’m pretty much in agreement about how to finish it – natural finish is definitely the way to go.
How did I get hold of it? It was a Christmas present from my parents (who live in New Zealand). They purchased it from a legitimate seller (I believe the source is Maori-owned land, and there are very specific rules under the Treaty of Waitangi about the protection of their land).
The tree is the New Zealand Kauri, a species that still grows there today. The trees were highly prized in the days of sailing ships, as the trunks were straight and tall, and perfect for replacement masts.
The timber is of average density (about 5 – 10% lighter than pine), and is a softwood. It is a beautiful wood to carve.
The swamp Kauri aspect comes from vast forests of these trees that were around the time of Mammoths. They fell, and in some cases these were in swampy areas where the trees ended up deep in anaerobic mud, which preserved them. 35000 – 50000 years later, the timber is found and recovered, and makes the most amazing furniture, and features.
Because of its scarcity, and traditional owners, there isn’t a great deal of this timber in existence – certainly isn’t like you can just plant another! So having some means I value what it is, more than just what it could be.
Kauri grow absolutely massive. I had the pleasure of seeing one in a walk off the beaten track in NZ. It towered above the canopy of the other trees. More info is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agathis_australis.
Stu, I used to get an email notification when there was a reply to a comment I left on your blog, but no longer – why’s that?
Only because I replied late at night, and was too tired to remember to cut & paste my reply into an email..there isn’t an automatic reply function, although you can subscribe to the RSS feed for comments.
Sorry about that!