There isn’t a messier or hairier timber to saw up into pen blanks than hairy oak timber BUT… it is so worth the mess. The horrid, thick, hairy bark flies everywhere and coats everything in the shed, yet I still adore its rich and diverse timber immensely. The timber log I was cutting up was posted to us by a customer who rescued it from someone's fireplace. Thank goodness he thought it too beautiful to be firewood; it was only charred on one side.

Hairy oak is full of stunning contrasts (see picture below as to why its named hairy oak). Hairy oak has rich honey brown tones with thickly striated grain and interesting knots and twists. It is an eye catching timber and popular with both men and women when turned into timber pens, pencils and letter openers.

Hairy oak is a stringy barked she-oak (Allocasuarina inophloia) which grows in open habitats and ranges from about 3 to 10 metres in height. It is found in New South Wales in areas such as the Clarence River valley, Emmaville, Yetman and Waralda, and also in northern Queensland to Herberton. It is typically found in woodland on sandstone, ironstone or laterite ridges.