Grey satinash

• Medium to large hardwood.
• Grows to 40m high and 1.8m diameter.
• Bole (trunk) symmetrical and partly buttressed.

• Occurs in the high rainfall areas between Tully and Cooktown.

Colour

• Heartwood buff grey to yellowish.
• Sapwood not clearly defined.

Grain

• Texture fine to medium.
• Grain often interlocked.

• Construction: building framework, dressed window and door sills, joinery, flooring, plywood, linings and fixtures, mouldings.
• Decorative: turnery, furniture and cabinet making, picture mouldings.
• Others: funeral caskets, shoe heels, plywood.

• Density: Syzygium gustavioides is690kg/m³ and Acmenosperma claviflorum is880kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 1.5m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: Syzygium gustavioides—S5 unseasoned, SD6 seasoned; Acmenosperma claviflorum—(S4) unseasoned, (SD4) seasoned (brackets indicate provisional value).
• Stress grades: Syzygium gustavioides—F5, F7, F8, F11 (unseasoned), F7, F8, F11, F14 (seasoned); Acmenosperma claviflorum—F7, F8, F11, F14 (unseasoned); F11, F14, F17, F22 when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: Syzygium gustavioides—J3 unseasoned, JD3 seasoned; Acmenosperma claviflorum—J3 unseasoned, JD2 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: 5.7% (tangential), 2.5% (radial).
• Unit shrinkage: 0.28% (tangential), 0.17% (radial)—these figures apply to timber reconditioned after seasoning.
• Durability above-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 7—15 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 5—15 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood susceptible to lyctid borer attack.
• Termite resistance: not resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood will impregnate with preservative.
• Seasoning: slow to dry, but with little degrade and without much difficulty.
• Hardness: moderately hard (rated 3 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
• Machining: works well with machine tools.
• Fixing: no difficulties using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: satisfactory.
• Finishing: accepts paint, stain and polish

General characteristics

• Sapwood: white-grey, not clearly defined.
• Heartwood: yellow to yellow-grey.
• Texture: medium and uniform; grain often interlocked.

Wood structure

• Vessels: medium to small, visible without lens, mostly solitary, but some in short radial chains of 2–4; visible vessel lines; tyloses with occasional vessel deposits.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): plentiful as fine confluent bands, not uniformly distributed.
• Rays: fine, numerous, visible with lens, and tending towards 2 distinct widths.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: match-size splinter burns to a charcoal or sometimes a fine black ash.

• Boland, DJ, Brooker, MIH, Chippendale, GM, Hall, N, Hyland, BPM, Johnston, RD, Kleinig, DA and Turner, JD 2006, Forest trees of Australia, 5th ed., CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
• Bootle, K 2005, Wood in Australia: Types, properties and uses, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
• Ilic, J 1991, CSIRO atlas of hardwoods, Crawford House Press, Bathurst, Australia.
• Queensland Government, DAF 2018, Construction timbers in Queensland: Properties and specifications for satisfactory performance of construction timbers in Queensland. Class 1 and Class 10 buildings, Books 1 & 2, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Brisbane.
• Standards Australia, 2000, AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes, Standards Australia International, Strathfield, NSW.