# 50,000 year old Ancient Kauri table



## Ancientwood (Oct 5, 2009)

Hello All,

Im a new member of the Woodworking Talk forums, glad to be here! I look forward to passing along some of the good woodworking tips we have developed in our shop. Commercially, we import the worlds oldest workable wood Ancient Kauri, but we also build finished products from this awesome wood as well. I wanted to post a picture here so you all could get an idea of the work we do.









This piece is a bookmatched slab, we filled the bark inclusions with epoxy, finished it with 3 coats of polyurethane varnish, then waxed the top. Can you believe the iridescence in that wood grain?? BEAUTIFUL!

Cedric
Ancientwood Ltd.
160 Madeline Island
La Pointe WI 54850
www.ancientwood.com


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## Gene Howe (Feb 28, 2009)

That is a gorgeous piece of wood and a very nice treatment.
It must fill you with reverence to work with such unique material.
Thanks for posting this. Very interesting.
Gene


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

Looks very cool. Geographically, where did these trees grow?


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

ACP, If I remember correctly New Zealand. Might be Australia though. These are all dug up out of bogs and shipped to the US by the folks at ancientwood... and they come with a hefty price. That said, I plan on buying some eventually (a small piece) if we don't keep getting trollish posts with pictures and obvious advertisements here. If ancientwood keeps posting with pictures and comments about the wood and not projects, I'll be inclined not to buy from them, no matter how pretty the wood is.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

frankp said:


> if we don't keep getting trollish posts with pictures and obvious advertisements here. I'll be inclined not to buy from them, no matter how pretty the wood is.


It is kind of a turn off isn't it Frank. :icon_rolleyes:


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## woodchip (Jan 14, 2008)

well said frank.


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## Ancientwood (Oct 5, 2009)

Hello-

Gene- Thanks for the compliment, your right, I feel it is an honor to work with such an incredible material! I'm glad you like the table.

ACP- Thanks, the wood comes out of New Zealand, the trees originally fell into bogs 50,000 years ago but they are being pulled out of fields now - I better not go into to much detail for fear of being tagged an "advertiser" 

Frank- Ever heard the saying if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all? We try to make people aware that this wood is available anyway we can, as we are a small company and do not have many advertising options available to us yet. I hope if you do a search for all my posts you will realize that I have tried to post constructive comments about projects and not just trollish advertisements. That being said, it sounds like more agree with you than disagree- I will gladly stop posting pictures and informing people what I do for a living. Im sorry if I have put anyone off.


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## Gene Howe (Feb 28, 2009)

Ancientwood said:


> SNIPPED
> 
> I hope if you do a search for all my posts you will realize that I have tried to post constructive comments about projects and not just trollish advertisements. That being said, it sounds like more agree with you than disagree- I will gladly stop posting pictures and informing people what I do for a living. Im sorry if I have put anyone off.


Not so fast! 

I, for one, appreciate seeing interesting and beautiful projects. Even those made by commercial interests. I especially enjoy projects like yours, incorporating such wonderfully intriguing wood.

Gene


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## Dvoigt (Dec 6, 2007)

But what if one believes that the earth is only about 6000-7000 years old.... 

oh wait that is a whole different topic...


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## Streamwinner (Nov 25, 2008)

Ancientwood said:


> I will gladly stop posting pictures and informing people what I do for a living. Im sorry if I have put anyone off.


I think what Frank said is reflective of what we like about this forum. It's really a bunch of people who all love woodworking and enjoy learning from each other. I have found so many wonderful and helpful people here who have contributed to my continued learning and skill building in woodwork. This can be somewhat compromised when people start posting spam in threads in order to further their own interests. It sort of "cheapens" the content.

I think you should consider yourself welcome here. I would love to learn more about your work and the things you do. With that said, I hope you don't find this site a vehicle for your advertizing.


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

I want to see posts on this wood too, but not commercials for it. This is a shared information site. That being said you work with an ancient, figured wood. I see a jointer in the background and a lot of sawdust. Maybe you could take some pics of your shop and post it the shop tour post? Your experience with this wood would be cool to know too. It is obviously highly figured which presents some issues with some woods. How does this stuff work with tools? How is it comparable to other woods? Do these trees still grow or are they extinct? What else do you make? I think if the group gets to know you then you'll get word of mouth travel. I think that's gonna benefit you in the long run, plus you'll find that there are some good discussions and cool people here too.


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## NKYDarrell (Sep 14, 2009)

I like seeing posts about the wood too, I wouldn't have known much about it otherwise. I can't really afford $40 a bd ft. but it is cool to learn about. maybe one day i'll look into getting some veneers. 

OTOH, I think you should keep the comments relevant. I was just reading a post where someone was asking about what finish to put on maple blocks and you posted a picture of your kauri wood with a organic linseed oil finish. they don't looks like similar woods at all to me. 

The first part of your response was great, but to a beginner, the second part would have just been confusing. If they had not seen the original color and figure of the kauri wood, they could be led to believe that it was the organic linseed oil that turned it that color.


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## vertygo (Sep 24, 2009)

I don't have many posts under my belt (here) but I agree that you should stay and contribute to the forum. Just leave your link in your signature and build up a reputation of contribution first  The wood is beautiful and sells itself to someone looking at it.

my 2cents of course.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Ancientwood, I mean no disrespect and I actually posted about your company about a year ago in one of my threads. All I'm saying is in the first five posts you made (I checked yesterday before making my comments above) 4 were about ancientwood and 1 had feedback on another project but also happened to mention your company. 

As others have said, this forum is a rare find in that we have a good rapport amongst the members and very little spam. We even have very few "flame war" issues. I welcome you to participate (in as much as I have any say in the matter) and just hope that you will find this forum for what it is... well meaning people helping each other and sharing information. I have no problem with the occasional comment about ancient wood and I certainly won't deter you from explaining to people if they see information in your signature (for example). I just prefer to see less of that (even if it happens sometimes) and more "plain" comments about your own work (or projects at your company like the tables you've shown) and other people's work. Questions and comments are always good.

I am particularly defensive about any type of advertisement because it annoys me, personally. Take that as part of the reason for my comments but please don't let it deter you (or anyone else) from being an active member of this forum if you have something to contribute.


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## John in Tennessee (Jun 11, 2008)

*Beautiful is a understatement.*

It's not really that pricey for what you are getting. I have a small project in mind. I'll do it in pine 1st as a test.


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## Ancientwood (Oct 5, 2009)

Hello,

Gene- Thanks again for the kind words, the encouragement is very appreciated!

Dvoigt- As you said, a whole different topic completely... We have had a few customers say they don’t think the wood is that old but it could have been what Noah built his arch out of. An interesting outlook, and who are we to refute that opinion? 

Streamwinner- Thanks for the welcome, I too am a spam hater... I did not intend to use this site as an advertising space.

ACP- This one could get long, but this seems like the place to answer your questions... I will be happy to post some pictures of our shop in the tour post. Kauri works quite easily with tools, the more highly figured, the more likely the piece is to have tension in it. That tension can grab the saw, and also warp the board (if its not dried properly) so we feel that patience while working with the Kauri, and a carefully dry time are absolutely essential. Most every piece that we work with, we kiln dry to 6-8% moisture content which makes a nice stable piece of wood.
We compare working with the Kauri to working with Mahogany. The Kauri is designated as a soft wood but it works more similar to a hard wood. Think harder than pine, but softer than oak. 
The Kauri trees still grow in New Zealand and parts of the South Pacific, they usually grow to very old ages, and thankfully all the living trees are protected. The Ancient Kauri has only been found on a small part of the north island of New Zealand; it is the same species, but it has been preserved underground for thousands of years. The wood is carefully excavated from just under the surface of the ground, and all the land that is disturbed is graded and seeded to return to its natural state. Because no living tree is cut down, this makes it more eco friendly than other exotic species that come to the U.S.
At Ancientwood, our finished products are mainly tables but we do counter tops quite often, and also mantles. These are just our most common pieces, all of our work is done on commission so we are very versatile.

NKY- I agree, I should have included a before picture of the raw wood along with the after picture of the organic linseed oil finish to be most informative. When I saw her calculations of how much surface area she had to cover and her fears of how much work she had to do, I wanted to prove a point that out of all finishes, it would probably be most effective to go with a rubbed oil instead of a polyurethane (hence my reference to the large project we had done in the past with rubbed oil finish) I should have been more clear and less proud of our work, I will be more relevant with my posts in the future. 

Vertygo- Thanks for the welcome, I will work harder at building a reputation of contribution.

Frankp- Thank you for the clarification on where you are coming from. I look forward to being a meaningful contributor to the forum. I will try to explain myself clearer and be more relevant with my topics. I agree that blatant advertisement is annoying and uncalled for. My intentions were geared more towards informing than advertising, but if my comments didn’t come off as informative, then it doesn’t matter what my intentions were!
I can understand your defensiveness, as I felt the same way when reading your first response. It is hard to see something suffer that you have put sweat and blood into, and with these economic times I know we aren’t the only ones feeling that way. It hurt me when I saw you implying that we were a no-faced company simply here for free advertising, which I promise is not the case. I will let my posts prove that.

John in Tennessee – I feel the same way, all things considered it is worth the investment. Testing beforehand is a great idea.


Thank you all, for the comments. I look forward to future discussions. 

Cedric
Ancientwood Ltd.
www.ancientwood.com


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## TheRecklessOne (Jul 22, 2008)

Whoa!? WOOD NERD BATTLE!!! just kidding guys! If there were a reason to have a wood nerd battle I would have 'windmilled' my way in by now.. 

Cool tabletop! :thumbsup: Show me more of this project!


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## slatron25 (Dec 18, 2007)

You know, some free samples may help stem the tide.
:whistling2:


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