Tawa
Tawa is an excellent furniture timber, its strength properties make it suitable for handles and rods, and it is very good for turnery across the grain such as in door knobs.Tawa has always been a specialty timber, and it has long had a reputation in New Zealand as a utility and joinery timber in the style of silver beech. It is picked to rise in demand as sustainable supplies became increasingly available.
Sustainability of supply
All New Zealand indigenous timbers are now sourced from privately owned forests. These forests are required to be managed to exacting standards under detailed long term Sustainable Management Plans.
Every forest managed for timber on a sustainable basis has its own individual MAF approved Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Plan or SFM Permit.
All plans and permits are approved and registered under the relevant sustainable forest management provisions of New Zealand Law, being Part 3A of the Forests Act 1949 (amended in 1993 to bring an end to unsustainable harvesting and clearfelling of indigenous forest) and the Resource Management Act 1991.
Tawa grows with other podocarps, and is a fairly abundant forest species.
Past harvesting supplied adequate supplies from the mixed podocarp forest harvest.
Tawa is a slow-growing species, with merchantable timber occurring after 200 years of growth.
It has not been successfully established as a plantation crop, requiring a nurse crop to successfully establish.
Only small improvements can be made through silvicultural manipulation.
Tawa requires shading from other species, but also requires a degree of light.
Therefore, viable sustainable forest management will rely on the removal of single trees to open up the canopy to an optimal size for other trees to fulfil their growth potential.
For further information please contact:
Indigenous Forestry Unit, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Summary fact sheet for Tawa - Printable PDF
Tawa flooring
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Quick Facts
Botanical name: Beilschmiedia tawa
Other common names:
Tawa
Strength
Tawa is a high density, very strong timber.
Durability
Both the heartwood and sapwood are non-durable.
Finishes
Tawa can be stained and polished readily.
Working properties
Tawa is an excellent finishing timber, and useful for across grain turning. The contrast between white and black colouration can be used to good effect.
Appearance
Logs under 35cm diameter are uniformly white throughout, although logs of greater diameter exhibit an irregular pathological zone of ‘black heart’ in the inner core of the tree, which follows the taper of the tree.
Description
Tawa has a thin bark, usually not more than 1cm thick, and is brownish-black.
Dry heartwood is a light creamy brown, akin to oak in colour and grain. Logs under 35cm diameter are uniformly white throughout, although logs of greater diameter exhibit an irregular zone of ‘black heart’
in the inner core of the tree, which follows the taper of the tree.
This is not true heartwood, however, and the two have similar densities, although the white outer timber is of higher strength.
It is believed that the black heart of the tree is caused by a pathological discolouration.
The grain is straight and very easy to split, with a fine texture, lustrous figure and light fleck.
