Standard wood yard timbers on a boat

[pcatterall]

just buying some redwood for a job at home and browsing the stacks of timber.
There seemed to be more 'better quality' timbers in stock mainly white oak and meranti.
i bought a bit of the white oak for one task and it has finished very well.
Have these timbers any place 'indoors or outdoors' on the boat. Are there any sustainability/environmental issues?

 

[Poignard]

just buying some redwood for a job at home and browsing the stacks of timber.
There seemed to be more 'better quality' timbers in stock mainly white oak and meranti.
i bought a bit of the white oak for one task and it has finished very well.
Have these timbers any place 'indoors or outdoors' on the boat. Are there any sustainability/environmental issues?

The framing of the internal joinery on my 55-year old boat is softwood and it is in sound condition.

Provided the interior is dry there is no reason softwood should not last a very long time.

 

[Blueboatman]

Dunno
Close grained , quarter sawn , autumn felled… brilliant
In our dreams ?
And then there’s the other stuff
A builders yard -imo ok?- has less carp than shrink wrapped value packs from the diy sheds
Some softwoods like good spruce and redwoods , perfect ?

 

[Rappey]

Meranti - The visual appeal of expensive woods without the cost, but doesn't handle extreme weather well.
The meranti I've come across seems very soft and pale, but very cheap.

 

[Stemar]

I once bought a length of 2x4 "mahogany" - no idea what it really was - for a project, but ended up not using it. Then I reengined Jissel and needed new engine beds, so I epoxied in suitable lengths of that 2x4 and they were still doing the job 15 years later when I sold her in spite of permanently soggy bilges

Having said that, I'd choose sapele over meranti for exposed use.

 

[pcatterall]

Dunno
Close grained , quarter sawn , autumn felled… brilliant
In our dreams ?
And then there’s the other stuff
A builders yard -imo ok?- has less carp than shrink wrapped value packs from the diy sheds
Some softwoods like good spruce and redwoods , perfect ?

I recall getting douglas fir to rebuild the wooden cabin frames on my old Colvic Atlanta, worked well and lasted despite regular wetting.

 

[pyrojames]

I recall getting douglas fir to rebuild the wooden cabin frames on my old Colvic Atlanta, worked well and lasted despite regular wetting.

But the Douglas fir is good for building boats anyway! Mast and boom are Oregon. It's good stuff.

I built a par of spinny pole from hand picked European redwood at Ridgeons. Varnished and maintained it is lasting well. If you can hand pick, then you can get some good stuff.,

 

[Daydream believer]

Meranti - The visual appeal of expensive woods without the cost, but doesn't handle extreme weather well.
The meranti I've come across seems very soft and pale, but very cheap.

Meranti is part of the Shorea species. Meranti, Shorea, Nemesu. At one time, one of the lowest cheapest grades of hardwood one could buy. The Timber Research & development Assn (Trada) listed it as not being suitable for external joinery without pressure impregnation . Some of it was totally lacking in grain feature & just looked a brown/yellow colour. Horid stuff really, but I used to buy it by the artic load. It was good in that its lack of grain structure meant it did not twist. So making a door with it was less risky. Do not knowwhat the price is now but I used to pay about £ 6.50 per ft3 against kiln dried Iroko at around £17-18 per ft3

 

[neil_s]

I made a new tiller from builders yard American white oak. Strong and lasting well.

 

[DownWest]

I used meranti for the hardwood on my faering, apart from the keel, which was iroko. But, it was quite hard, not like some of the stuff I saw.
Luckily, we can now get doug fir in long lengths and good quality.

Way back, a bloke built a 24ft cutter, lifting the lines from an article in a boat mag. On cost basis, he used construction pine for strip planking and just about everything else. He called it 'Spirit of Joshua' we were less kind, calling it 'Spirit of Cofragem' (shuttering lumber). It had rot before it was launched and went downhill after that.


Oh, Doug fir and Oregon Pine, same stuff.
White Oak, so called because the leaves are white underneath, has a rep in the US for not glueing well with epoxy.