Sandpaper fig is commonly found along the banks of the more permanent creeks throughout the highlands.
Sometimes multi-stemmed, it grows to as high as 6 or 7 metres with trunk
diameters to about 250mm. The common name comes from the texture of the
leaves but tour guides that tell you the aborigines used it as sandpaper
are probably stretching it a bit. While it will abrade soft materials OK,
it has little effect on the hardwoods that the men used to make their weapons
and tools from.
The leaves may not be any good for sandpaper but the tree is a great food
source - the fruits are reported to be very tasty and to be very high in
nutrients - I'm just not into figs.
While the timber is very soft to work and suffers from extreme shrinkage
while drying, the grain pattern and colour can be very effective in use.
Anything I have left in log form has discoloured badly (which may have been
due to the bark being left intact) and has suffered some minor
internal collapse, but sawn boards and green turned items
survive OK if given enough air. The timber is quite light, sands very easily
and needs to be sealed before finishing.
