Simonbob
Well-known member
Ignoring other factors than age?Define 'really nice timber' for me and why we need it please.
Ok.
Humans, animals in general, work on a setup where they grow up for a while, then decline from there. Once your dog is a full adult, that's the peak. It's all down hill from there.
Trees don't work like that. Not even close. There are a number of factors, but.... A tree might have a 300 year lifespan. And for most of that time, it becomes more along that time. Example: Teak.
Teak's the best external timber in the world. Boat building, external furniture, anything outside. It's got natural oils that repel moisture so well, you can't just glue it. It'll repel the glue if you're not careful. But, that requires time for the tree in question to properly grow those oils. To firm up it's material. To stabilise.
There's two types of Teak avalable in the world. One grows in Burma/Myanmar, and is managed in traditional style, for top quality. (Mostly, that means wandering through the forest once a year looking for invasive stuff, and doing something about it if it turns up.) Not a single tree under 80 years old is cut down. The other is plantation, quick growing. Say, 15 years.
The plantation stuff is lucky to last a third as long outside, is less stable, less strong, just not as good at all.