I’m working with a customer who may want her kitchen cabinets made from Lyptus. I know almost nothing about it and my local lumber supplier doesn’t carry it – although they think they can get it. They’re going to try to get a few pieces so I can make a sample door for the customer.
Has anyone used Lyptus? Can you post some pictures? When I googled Lyptus, I got the Weyerhauser website and they have a picture of a really nice looking cabinet.
Any input will be appreciated.
Thanks
Replies
If you go to "Advanced Search" at the top left corner of this page and search for "lyptus" you'll find 200 postings on the wood from past discussions.
The wood doesn't seem to be especially good or bad, but it is easy to get a splinter from it and some people react badly to the dust.
Does the client want it for some special reason? If they want sustainably harvested wood any domestic hardwood usually qualifies and it wouldn't have to be hauled halfway around the world.
John
The plus with Lyptus is that it finishes nicely to look very much like mahogany, but at more like maple board-foot prices. Very heavy and hard, it gives a nice solid feel to doors and panels. Splinters, yes, but once edges have been eased it's not a problem. I haven't had any stability problems with the sample boards I have worked with. (The board I left on the wet grass overnight by error certainly did warp, but after a week of stickering it in the shop it returned to original shape.)
Part of the Green appeal is that the interval from harvest to harvest is very short--perhaps 15 years. It's all plantation grown.
If got a kitchen being made from Lyptus so I am a bit prejudiced. The sample doors are fantastic. I don't have them now--my pictures will have to be posted in September.
Hi, Dave,
Definitely get some boards to try it out. My experiments with Lyptus told me it's hard, heavy, seemed prone to tearout on a flatsawn face (that is planing after resawing), splinters easily, and that I am sensitive to the dust. But I'm still thinking of using it for a cabinet project--I'd probably get the veneered plywood for door panels and boxes, and use the solid for the frames.
The reason that lyptus has such a short turn-around from planting to harvesting is because the new tree grows out of the stump of a previouly harvested tree. As a result, the root system is established, and the 'new' tree's energy is directed to growth above the ground, based on the established below-ground infrastructure.
Weyerhaeuser is the US importer of Lyptus, and they might have been involved in the development of the hybrid, although I'm not sure of the latter. Hence, you'll end up seeing Weyerhaeuser when you seek information. Did you see this flyer? Weyerhaeuser has others posted on their site that show Lyptus in use:
http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/ourbusinesses/buildingproducts/lyptus/pdfs/LyptusPlywoodSpecSheet.pdf
Well, I finally found some Lyptus - about two blocks from the lumberyard who gave me funny looks when I asked if they had - or could get it.
I made a couple of sample doors today and was quite impressed with the stuff. Yeah, it's pretty heavy, and it's splintery, but it sure sands out and finishes nicely.
Here's a picture of one of the sample doors. These are for "show and tell" so it's just a simple flat panel door with mitered rails and stiles. (Everyone seems to want mitered instead of cope and stick, anymore.) The finish is just a couple of coats of water based poly.
I also made a smaller sample piece that I stained with Minwax "English Oak". SWMBO thinks that it's prettier than the straight finished doors.
I made two sample doors since my other kitchen customer hasn't gotten to the point of deciding on what wood to use on her cabs. She's also into the whole "eco-friendly", "green", thing so Lyptus may appeal to her, too.
Nice looking door. Check out what happens when you use dye for the first color step. My brief experiments so far suggest that it takes dye quite well, and that it is so dense that pigment only stain on bare wood "takes" mostly in the pores (though it is not "blotchy") so that to obtain a fairly dark color requires a combination of dye and pigment.
Has anyone seen anything about Lyptus's rot resistance? I haven't been able to find anything about that.
Try this discussion (URL follows). The folks talked to Weyerhaeuser and posted the responses. The short answer is that Lyptus is not rot resistant, and Weyco considers Lyptus an interior wood. You might also note that most movement is tangential, which implies it may be prone to cupping if not promptly finished. I had machined a couple of pieces about 1/4" thick by 6" wide that just lay around the shop, and they cup and flatten depending on the prevailing weather (Seattle area).
http://www.instantboats.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=6194&sid=794a1f67ecdaabcd9be8e5b71cc03961
Bob, thank you for that link. How did you know I was wondering about Lyptus for boat building?
;>)
I googled on 'DaveRichards' and 'wondering'. Actually that was the most informative hit I got, as I had also wondered about some of the properties of Lyptus, and hadn't been able to find much. So I tried again this morning, and got lucky. Glad it helped.
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