Eucalyptus - Planing, Turning & Carving?

[Steve Mathews]

I just finished carving a few spoons and tool handles out of what I believe to be Eucalyptus wood. In dried form it was hard to carve but finished beautifully. The figure in the wood is very attractive. I also tried to make a small box out of the same but couldn't get it to plane without a lot of tear-out either using a powered jointer, powered surface planer or handplane. The knives on all were sharp. Is this typical of Eucalyptus? With the few remaining pieces of wood I may try turning it to see how that turns out.

[Andrew Hughes]

I’ve used Eucalyptus and found it very difficult to machine. The stuff I used was Air dried and it still was a pain.
I cannot imagine how difficult kiln dried would be.
Turing it sounds like a great idea because it is very good looking stuff.

[Derek Cohen]

Steve, do you know what type of eucalyptus (gum trees) you have. It is the name given to over 700 different types, and most of them in Australia. All hard as nails, and interlocked grain. I work a great deal with these woods ... Jarrah is Eucalyptus marginata.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bill Dufour]

There are over 500 species of eucalypts so result may very. In California almost all is red or blue. The blue gum In California is not the same as the blue gum in Australia.
They grove at UC Berkeley are the oldest and tallest ones in the new world. They are also the tallest hardwood trees in North America They are only about 140 years old and still growing (1882).
Bill D.

You can see the twisted bark over the twisted wood that spirals all the way up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwV_nlNoO2c