Collection of timber samples by Tom Robbie 1934
These Timber samples were passed on from the family of Tom A Robbie who was the Forestry Training School principal at Glentress 1947-1953 and also at Faskally 1953-1955 and thereafter in Conservancy Office appointments in Scotland. The items were brought to the attention of Forestry Memories by Mairi McGeachy, Business Support Manager, Aberfoyle Office.
The timber samples, 30 in all, measure approximately 150mm x 40mm x 10mm and the species labels are dated as 8/3/34 with initials TAR. It may be assumed that these were collected as part of Tom Robbie’s forestry university course at Aberdeen.
Timber imports at this time would have been in volume terms very significant as would the variety of species from the colonies and world trading partners.
The samples billets are named probably as per information provided by the suppliers but it would appear that some are not recognised or the supplier’s timber names have fallen into disuse or not widely recognised.
The samples were quite dark and soiled from the passage of time and an attempt was made to provide some fresh planed surfaces to aid identification. Unfortunately some the end grain preparations suffered from a lack of very sharp tools. Knife blades were used to cut some parts of the edges to highlight the vessels, rays and growth rings. Four edges of the samples were scanned on a regular scanner in batches of five and the results assembled into one composite image for easier viewing. The same order of species from left to right is used in each composite image.
Below has been added some of the potential species names to the labelled name but comments and corrections from timber identification specialists would be very welcome.
American red oak – Quercus rubra (Quercus borealis)
American white oak - Qercus alba
Austrian oak (or Turkey oak) – Quercus cerris
Japanese oak – 15-16 species of oak in Japan?
Riga Oak – Looks like Quercus petraea or robur?
The large image is accessible from the link below.
Download Large Version (13.4MB)
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