During the early settlement of Europeans in Western Australia, jarrah was known as Swan River mahogany. We now use the Aboriginal name of jarrah.

The colour can range from almost white through to a deep burgundy. Overall colour is reddish brown.

This page shows several examples of the beautiful figure and colour of this marvellous timber.

[Click on image to take you to this bench]

[Click on image to take you to this bench]

Detail from a school bench showing the removable strip (screwed on) which allows the top to be replaced easily after years of use.

[Click on image to take you to this bench]

Detail from a round dog-hole bench showing the use of Veritas accessories. The hold down clamp is shown pushed through the 100 x 100mm (4 inch square) leg and used to hold a work piece hard up against the bench instead of using a vice. With one bench pup and two wonder pups even a circular shape can be clamped steady on the laminated western bluegum bench top as shown.

This bench has a 40mm laminated western bluegum top, a sheoak vice cheek and jarrah framework.

By using a thick vice cheek we were able to position a bench pup in a central 19mm diameter hole and transform the plain screw vice into a peg vice.

The holes drilled into the deep side bearer that the vice is mounted into are set at different heights and distances from the vice along the full length of the bench.

Some holes are set at the same height as the protective guide bars of the vice. Long, heavy workpieces can be lowered down onto the guide bars and a protruding bench pup to take the weight. The vice clamps the workpiece firmly despite its size and work can then proceed in a flowing, speedy and safe manner.

[Click on image to take you to a bench with this vice fitted]

Detail of the popular Record 52½ ED quick action woodworking peg vice with a wide jarrah vice cheek. Timber selected for wooden vice cheeks is often cut to suit the pattern of the figure even if it results in a little wastage in the length used. We also round ends more or sand down to a thinner than usual piece if chasing the figure gives a bench more individual character.

The Bench Stop sits flush with the top surface of the bench when not in use. It rests on a projecting dowel set into the bench leg.

[Click on image to take you to this bench]

The Bench Stop can be set at any convenient height up to 40mm higher than the benchtop surface. The height is set by tightening the wing nut. There is another tensioning fitting just under the benchtop to use in case of seasonal movement.

A close up view of any workbench shows variation of colour or figure that is worthy of closer attention.

[Click on image to take you to this workshop desk]

Jarrah (eucalyptus marginata) is the ideal timber to use for the construction of workbenches. It has a superior hardness, weight and load bearing ability to European and North American bench timbers. It has remarkable durability, outstanding resistance to fire and termite attack and is impervious to most acids. Jarrah is one of a few timbers that doesn’t set off a chemical reaction when trapped in close contact with metals. It is a preferred timber for the production of charcoal.

Jarrah has been sought around the world for use in hostile environments, for example as railway sleepers in Australia, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom (London underground). It has also been widely used around the world for the construction of wharves and bridges. Jarrah has been used as a road foundation throughout Europe for major thoroughfares, for park benches in New York and for exterior paving blocks in Japan.

Jarrah grows in the lateritic soils in the south west of Western Australia. The rainfall in this area is between 650 and 1250mm. Jarrah is the principal commercial timber tree of Western Australia. The area of prime jarrah forest is approximately 1,215,000 hectares although a more open type of forest occurs over a much larger area. There is a mixture of regrowth and old growth forest, with all old growth jarrah forest in conservation reserves.

The tree reaches a height of 30-40m (100-130ft), with a diameter up to 2m (7ft). It has a straight slender trunk, with rough and stringy bark which has a fibrous texture. The tree is slow growing, taking 30 years minimum to harvest. Roots often go down to great depths in search of nutrient and water.

The main historical uses for the timber are for wharf and bridge construction, poles, piles, railway sleepers, girders, veneer logs, sawlogs. It is a superb furniture timber with beautiful figure and colour. The timber is relatively easy to work and takes a polish well.

Westem Australia has timbers with more strength or a hardness factor up to 18kN but none offer as much overall as jarrah.

At 12% moisture content density is 820 kg/m3, Modulus of Rupture 112MPa, Modulus of Elasticity 12 970 MPa.

	Jarrah has a hardness factor (dry) of 8.5kN (kilo Newtons) compared with:
	Sugar (rock) maple from Canada 7.3kN
	Sugar (rock) maple from U.S.A 6.4kN
	European (red) beech (the hardest beech) 6.4kN.
	American white oak 6kN,
	Scandinavian birch 5.5kN
	Teak 4.5kN
	Maritime Pine 2.7kN

	The full scale, museum quality replica of Captain James Cook’s HM Bark Endeavour was launched in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1993. Jarrah was used below the wale instead of English oak. The expected life of the hull is up to 500 years, more than double that of the original.
	In 1894, the City Of San Francisco estimated it would have saved $25 million over the previous 40 years by using jarrah for wharf construction instead of redwood, pine and other eucalypts.
	Jarrah is able to resist the marine teredo and limnoria worms. There are many wharves (piers/docks) and bridges around the world that testify to the durability and strength of the timber. The Busselton jetty in Western Australia is a good example. The jetty is over 140 years old. It has weathered countless storms and a damaging cyclone but is still in use today. The jetty is the longest in the southern hemisphere (1841m) and has an underwater observatory attached 1.8km from shore.
	Jarrah branches have been identified as the reinforcing material in some old sections of the Great Wall Of China. The branches and twigs were packed in with rammed, yellow sand.
	Your bench will last generations, being used and enjoyed daily. It will no doubt be recycled at the end of its busy workshop life into another form of usefulness. Forest regrowth is a long, long way ahead of use for the timber harvested to make workbenches.