Farm Forestry New ZealandSawmilling of Himalayan cypress (Cupressus cashmeriana) in Northland
By Dean Satchell, September 2010.
I am not aware of any work on wood properties or sawmilling of this species in New Zealand. This despite reasonable quantities of C. torulosa timber coming into Canterbury with the chinese 100 years ago, some of which is still around even in exposed conditions, a fine anecdote of its high durability.
My interest in the species is because of the timber. Despite being among the most attractive of the cypresses, the Old World species C. torulosa and C. cashmeriana have received very little interest in New Zealand to date. The timber is reputed to be highly scented and extremely durable.
I managed to get hold of a single tree, probably around 30 years old, near Kerikeri. This is the glaucous weeping form (C. cashmeriana)
The stump, felled tree and sapwood band
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The two logs from this tree
No-nonsense loading of logs onto truck using....
...simple available machinery, rope and pulleys
Sawmilling using a woodmizer portable sawmill
The timber: Very attractive, good colour and nice "fiddleback" figure (this pic fresh off the saw)
Would be nice to do some durability studies of the timber. The good colour indicates the species to be a candidate for breeding, possibly hybridising with New World cypresses...
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