Karri

Overview

Karri is the tall, pale-red cousin of Jarrah from the same south-west corner of Western Australia. It is a hard, strong, fairly straight-grained eucalypt used mostly for flooring, beams and joinery, and less often for furniture. Choose it when you want an Australian red hardwood and can accept limited availability.

Pros

• Hard and strong: Wood Database gives 2030 lbf and WoodSolutions 9.0 kN (about 2020 lbf at 224.8 lbf per kN), so the two sources agree.
• Rated durable to moderately durable (Wood Database).
• Typically sold as long, straight-grained flooring and joinery stock.
• Takes oil finishes well.

Cons

• Difficult to machine; quartersawn faces tear out (Wood Database).
• Sapwood is susceptible to borer and termites and resists impregnation (WoodSolutions), and the Wood Database lists the wood as susceptible to termites.
• Skin irritation is reported (Wood Database).
• Rarely stocked for furniture in the US, and no public US price was found.

Variants and subspecies

• Karri heartwood: the normal reddish board.
• Sapwood: pale and vulnerable to insects; specify heartwood for outdoor or structural use.
• Sold alongside jarrah as "WA hardwood". The two differ in hardness (Wood Database: karri 2030, jarrah 1860) and in machining behaviour, so do not treat them as interchangeable.

Working and finishing

Treat it like jarrah: sharp carbide, slow feeds, pilot holes, and light cuts on quartersawn faces to limit tear-out. Test glue and finish on offcuts.

Staining and finishing colour

Colour is already reddish and fairly even, so use clear oils or hardwax oil rather than heavy stain. Expect it to darken and shift with light.

Sustainability and handling

The IUCN assessment is Least Concern (2019, via Wikipedia). Not listed in the CITES Appendices according to the Wood Database; checked 2026-09, but I could not query CITES/Species+ directly, so confirm before you export. Karri is harvested from the same south-west forests as jarrah, and per the WA Government and ABC News (1 Jan 2024) commercial native-forest logging there ended on 1 January 2024, with timber now limited to ecological thinning and approved clearing under the 2024-2033 Forest Management Plan. That makes karri a poor default choice for new buying; if you need an Australian hardwood, Spotted gum or Blackbutt come from the east coast, where plantation resources exist. Wear a mask and use dust extraction: the Wood Database reports skin irritation.

Popular projects

Floors, stair treads and joinery in Australia; in North America it appears mostly in custom flooring and the occasional bench or table top.

Buying notes

Rarely listed by US stockists. In Australia it is mostly sold as decking and structural stock; I found no flooring or lumber price, so the price field above is a placeholder. Ask the seller for species proof, moisture content and where the log was harvested; a salvaged or thinning-sourced board is the defensible choice.