Palm Wood

[DoomsDave]

Howdyall:

Yesterday I took down a large Dypsis lutescens (too big, need room for rarer stuff) and noticed that the wood from the trunks is quite hard and dense.

A conk on the noggin could cause some serious damage.

Over time, I've noted the differences among wood from various palms:

Archontophoenix is soft and spongy. A machete will slash through a trunk if swung hard enough.

Ditto for Roystonea, though they're much too big to slash easy.

Washies also have soft, spongy wood.

ON the other hand . . .

Syagrus noodlesromanoffiana has very hard wood, as does Phoenix.

Phoenix wood seems like it's woven from steel cables. Shred it? Forgeddit.

Anyone else have any reports on palm wood?

Just curious . . .

[QUINNPALMS]

Murderer , donate them to those in need!

[Stevetoad]

I saw some guys working on a caryota. Looked like it was super hard

[Jastin]

I saw some guys working on a caryota. Looked like it was super hard

Yeah It took a crew a whole day to cut an alive Urnes down. You could hear the chainsaws bogging down.

[Jastin]

Howdyall:

Yesterday I took down a large Dypsis lutescens (too big, need room for rarer stuff) and noticed that the wood from the trunks is quite hard and dense.

A conk on the noggin could cause some serious damage.

Over time, I've noted the differences among wood from various palms:

Archontophoenix is soft and spongy. A machete will slash through a trunk if swung hard enough.

Ditto for Roystonea, though they're much too big to slash easy.

Washies also have soft, spongy wood.

ON the other hand . . .

Syagrus noodlesromanoffiana has very hard wood, as does Phoenix.

Phoenix wood seems like it's woven from steel cables. Shred it? Forgeddit.

Anyone else have any reports on palm wood?

Just curious . . .

You whacked the guy? Where is the green thumb that points down when you need it!

[DoomsDave]

Howdyall:

Yesterday I took down a large Dypsis lutescens (too big, need room for rarer stuff) and noticed that the wood from the trunks is quite hard and dense.

A conk on the noggin could cause some serious damage.

Over time, I've noted the differences among wood from various palms:

Archontophoenix is soft and spongy. A machete will slash through a trunk if swung hard enough.

Ditto for Roystonea, though they're much too big to slash easy.

Washies also have soft, spongy wood.

ON the other hand . . .

Syagrus noodlesromanoffiana has very hard wood, as does Phoenix.

Phoenix wood seems like it's woven from steel cables. Shred it? Forgeddit.

Anyone else have any reports on palm wood?

Just curious . . .

You whacked the guy? Where is the green thumb that points down when you need it!

I didn't whack anyone. I playfully hit myself on the head, and almost gave myself a concussion. That stem is almost like stone!

[DoomsDave]

Murderer , donate them to those in need!

Well, not this one.

It was infected with something that caused the stems to die back. The palm itself was vigorous enough to overcome that, but I was afraid more delicate prizes might croak.

I have another one I'm going to try to find a home for.

Interested? It's about 8 feet tall, with about a dozen trunks.

[realarch]

The most resilient palm wood I've found so far is Rhapis excelsa. My god, that stuff is tough and never seems to degrade. I use it for plant stakes, trellises, and whatever else I need it for.

I've been using the same plant stakes for three years now and it's as tough as when it was cut. Seems to be virtually indifferent to water too as I've has some underwater for a few years....tough as nails.

D. lutescens degrades really fast and seems to rot in a jiff. Too bad, as it's straight and has nice color. I've cut down probably 100 canes or so over the past few years and wish I could have

done something with them other than a trip to the green dump.

I know Caryota is a tough go, I have a friend who had some C. gigas, (I think), that were getting too big and he tried to cut them down. It was like trying to cut through steel with a chain saw. He gave up.

Now he hates them. Caryota is a no go for me, partly for that reason.

[Lowey]

Wodyetia's are incredibly hard I have found and they dont rot away too quick either, I have made several attempts to cut down a trunk of one that died on me and the chain saw does not like it at all

[QUINNPALMS]

1332308213' post=518968]

1332305861' post=518957]

Murderer , donate them to those in need!

Well, not this one.

It was infected with something that caused the stems to die back. The palm itself was vigorous enough to overcome that, but I was afraid more delicate prizes might croak.

I have another one I'm going to try to find a home for.

Interested? It's about 8 feet tall, with about a dozen trunks.

Ok , I feel better now , how much for the 8 footer?

[NApalm]

Spears (amongst other things) used to be made out of Normanbya normanbyi wood i believe.

[pindo]

Hello Dave

Copernicia alba wood is very hard and very used in our region for many rurals applications

Corral for cows

pots for plants

Ceilings

fence posts

chicken coop

best

Edited March 21, 2012 by pindo

[MattyB]

I'd like to hear more about Caryota. I'm growing two of them at about 3' apart, right at the edge of my gully, in the hopes of oneday felling them across the approximately 30' span and making a foot bridge out of them. I've been told that they will rot and be unsafe. Any thoughts on this?

[DoomsDave]

Ah,thanks for the useful information.

And, I'm interested in the answer to Matt's question, albeit for a different reason . . .

[Jastin]

I'm not sure about it rotting by I have heard that Caryotas have some of the hardest woods in the world. I would think it would be ok since palm frond mulch never really decomposes. How deep is the gully Matt?

[Jastin]

Howdyall:

Yesterday I took down a large Dypsis lutescens (too big, need room for rarer stuff) and noticed that the wood from the trunks is quite hard and dense.

A conk on the noggin could cause some serious damage.

Over time, I've noted the differences among wood from various palms:

Archontophoenix is soft and spongy. A machete will slash through a trunk if swung hard enough.

Ditto for Roystonea, though they're much too big to slash easy.

Washies also have soft, spongy wood.

ON the other hand . . .

Syagrus noodlesromanoffiana has very hard wood, as does Phoenix.

Phoenix wood seems like it's woven from steel cables. Shred it? Forgeddit.

Anyone else have any reports on palm wood?

Just curious . . .

You whacked the guy? Where is the green thumb that points down when you need it!

I didn't whack anyone. I playfully hit myself on the head, and almost gave myself a concussion. That stem is almost like stone!

I'm just messing with you Dave! I sometime get these voices in my head and I start moving stuff around and getting rid of things.

[MattyB]

I'm not sure about it rotting by I have heard that Caryotas have some of the hardest woods in the world. I would think it would be ok since palm frond mulch never really decomposes. How deep is the gully Matt?

If it goes the way I'm envisioning it, with a span of about 30', the bridge will be no taller than about 15' from the bottom of the gully at its highest point. High enough to kill someone, that's for sure.

[Walter John]

I recall a couple of guys felling trees at Utopia and they busted the chain on their chainsaw trying to cut down an Arenga pinnatta, it was a monster size I suppose.

Matty I cut stems of a Caryota mitis, they weren't too difficult, that's a bit different to a big single of course.

my two cents...

[Really full garden]

My dining room table and chairs are made from the wood from a very tall/old royal that got hit by lightning.The tree was free but I cannot tell you how many diamond tipped blades the cabinet maker went through to get the final result.Everyone always comments on it,wondering what kind of wood its made from.

[Tropicgardener]

Coconut wood is gorgeous.

[Brad-Tampa]

Howdy Dave,

In addition to growing palms and cycads, my dad was also into woodworking. After he retired from being a surgeon, he used a lathe to turn alot of pieces from different exotic woods. This Cayota bowl came from one he grew and bloomed out, yes it is very hard wood.

Being an orthopedic surgeon, he ended up also collecting walking canes. It started after a patient left his fancy cane at dad's office out of gratitude. Dad brought this cane back from one of his trips to the Amazon. Locals had carved it from, I believe, a Bactris stem. It is extremely hard, stiff and dense, solid fibers.

As Pindo shows, palm wood can be extremely important to the indigeneous people living throughout the tropics.

Brad

[Cedric]

coconut wood is made into all sorts of durable things too but Im not sure if it weathers too well. Its true Roystonia is like pulp but I believe the outer layer is used for hut walls, just chopped up some huge hollow stumps and the middle was like string spagetti but the outside still pretty good like masonite or ply wood style after a year in extreme warmth and humidity think it might be stronger if scraped down and dried. Must depend a lot on the growth speed and age of the palm too. D. leptocheilos is pretty dense.

Caryota gigas is very difficult to fell without proper gear but it rots fairly quickly once felled, thats in 80-90% humidity and 30-33 %C, still got three live ones reaching for the stars. Contary to what I've read it must be one of the fastest palms I've grown here, about the same as Roystonia.

[amazondk]

Dave,

There is a pretty sizable business with coconut wood flooring and furniture. The wood comes from renewal of groves in the Phillipines, Fiji, and elsewhere I believe. Here is one of the companies - http://www.coconutwood.co.uk/

Of the local amazonian palm the Astrocaryum aculeatum, the tucumã, has very hard wood and makes beautiful furniture. The wood looks like it made up of compresses thorns, which it probabaly is.

dk

[nkbish]

I helped my neighbor cut down a syagrus romanzoffiana. It had about 22' of wood trunk. Instead of tossing it in the green trash bin I put it to use in my back yard. There was a lot of chainsaw work to be done to get it to slide onto the block wall with the brick cap and to make the saddle for the beam to sit on. The saw cut through it no problem and I would say it is almost as soft as cutting through pine. The issue is all fibers get caught in the clutch and sprocket which bogs down the saw.

[Dave-Vero]

With Roystonea, it was largely the wide leaf bases that were used as siding for houses. I never saw that when I was a kid in Puerto Rico--wood siding was available, and anyway, everyone wanted a concrete house.

A lot of palm trunks are very flexy, good for wind resistance.

[Jastin]

I helped my neighbor cut down a syagrus romanzoffiana. It had about 22' of wood trunk. Instead of tossing it in the green trash bin I put it to use in my back yard. There was a lot of chainsaw work to be done to get it to slide onto the block wall with the brick cap and to make the saddle for the beam to sit on. The saw cut through it no problem and I would say it is almost as soft as cutting through pine. The issue is all fibers get caught in the clutch and sprocket which bogs down the saw.

How is that standing? In the second pic it looks like it could easily fall over...

[DoomsDave]

I helped my neighbor cut down a syagrus romanzoffiana. It had about 22' of wood trunk. Instead of tossing it in the green trash bin I put it to use in my back yard. There was a lot of chainsaw work to be done to get it to slide onto the block wall with the brick cap and to make the saddle for the beam to sit on. The saw cut through it no problem and I would say it is almost as soft as cutting through pine. The issue is all fibers get caught in the clutch and sprocket which bogs down the saw.

Now THAT'S CREATIVE.

I'm glad I thought of it! :lol: :lol:

[DoomsDave]

hmm.

So much wood, so little time!

I'm not really in the mood to turn the pieces into numchuks, so I needed to find another use for them.

Fired up the Palmatoreum (of Doom, of course) one cold night, and burned some dicot wood, and, just for giggles tossed in some of the Dypsis lute.

It was relatively wet, but it burned right up. That suggests it will also rot fast.