Hows this for a staircase!

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day,

This link shows you a fairly unique staircase built at a place near where I grew up.  The photos dont do it justice, but gives you an idea.
They are extracting a lot of the swamp kauri from around the area, and making quite nice - and some awful! - souviners for the tourists.  The site has some interesting photos of the size of some of these massive trees being unearthed.
Wood turners might like to look at the site also.

http://www.ancientkauri.co.nz/index.html
http://www.ancientkauri.co.nz/stairs.html

Cheers
Charlie.

[Tom]

Wow! That's neat.  It remids me of the house made from one redwood log that was not sawed but was hewed out with walls and some of the furniture being left from the hewing as part of the log.  It was carried from Fair to Fair on a Huge flatbed trailer built especially for the purpose.  

Stuff like this enthralls me.  Give ua a synopsis of Kuari, Kiwi.  where it grows, how much is left, etc.  

It amazes me that after 50,000 years the tree was still wood and had not petrified.    And we think we are here a long time by living to 100.years.  A human generation is estimated to be 32 years.  That tree has been around for how many generations, 1562 ?  The Pyramids are only something like 10,000 years old.

[RavioliKid]

Neat!  ;)

[Bud Man]

Thank's Charlie, I really enjoyed  8)

[Frank_Pender]

Wow!  8) That sure out does some of my Maple burl logs.  Thank you, for sharing.

[Paul_H]

Way to go Charlie,It is mind boggling to me  :othat #1, it would still be sound,and#2 somebody could envision a staircase in a muddy old log 8)
Keep em coming!

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Tom,

I will have to do this with the help of a couple of links, to illustrate points!
Back in the early settler days of New Zealand (only talking the early 1800's here, we are a very young country!) pioneers sailed into the Northland area of NZ.
There were massive numbers of kauri trees there, as the land had not been developed much at all by the small numbers of locals.

The trunk does not taper as it gets taller, so the big trees had huge amounts of timber in them.  It has flawless straight grained timber.  It is easy to work with, easy to dry, very stable, durable and strong.  It was used for ships masts a lot due to its strength.

http://www.learnz.org.nz/2001/great_barrier/kauri_resource.htm

Kauri was taken in huge numbers.  Almost to the point of exinction, by the end of the 1800's.
It doesnt help that they are also very slow growing!  They reach maturity at around 200 years but are still growing at 500 years old.
Mature kauris are second only in size (in the world) to the Redwoods, of the US.
The largest kauri in existence today is Tane Mahuta (Maori for "Lord of the Forest"). It is 4.4 metres in diameter and 17.7 metres to the first branch. They say its 2000 years old!

http://members.tripod.com/NZPhoto/sterea/kauri.htm#tane

http://www.insights.co.nz/story_behind_i.asp

The Kauri Gum was also highly regarded.   It is a resin which bleeds from the tree. If the bark is damaged or a branch is broken by the wind, the resin bleeds out and seals the wound. This prevents rot or water getting into the tree. It can build up into a lump which goes hard. As the tree grows the bark is continually shed. The gum is forced off and falls onto the ground around the tree. This had been happening for millions of years before mankind started to use it. There were vast quantities of gum in the ground.
They used kauri gum to make a very high quality varnish. Other uses were in paints, linoleum floor coverings, sealing waxes, candles, marine glues and fire lighters.

http://ahipara.co.nz/Gumfields/info/kaurigum.htm

Now the tree is totally protected, you cant fell them at all.  There are many left, but obviously a fraction of what there were.  And only a very small number of large examples.
Thousands have been planted too, and some areas are starting to look great now after 50-100 years!

Not really a synopsis, but some things need a bit of explaining if youve not seen it before!
Cheers
Charlie.

[KiwiCharlie]

Hey Jeff,

Can you help me with the link in my last post, cant seem to separate it from the text beneath it!
Thanks
Charlie.

[Tom]

Thanks, that was great. I really enjoyed that little talk.  It read just as good as some of the high dollar books I have here at the house.  :P

[woodman]

  That's a big log, maby a 6 or 8 split to  :Dggget it on my wood mizer.

[Steve]

I'll take it whole on my Mobile Dimension

Steve

[Texas Ranger]

for the first time I feel our Texas timber is insignificant.  

[Frank_Pender]

hank you, Kiwi Charlis.  It was a very interesting post about a very beautiful tree.  :P  ;)

[Corley5]

Now that's cool!!!