A few years ago I bought a Ralli Car in Scotland and I was told at the time that it had “lancewood shafts,” a superior kind. What is lancewood and can it be obtained here?
The following is taken from a paper read before the Institute of British Carriage Makers on March 15, 1884 by Matthew Mullins, a coachbuilder of Cork, Ireland. His paper was called “Timbers Used in Carriage Building,” and, writing about shaft timbers, he has this to say:
Lancewood is a hard, heavy and elastic wood: yellowish in color, very difficult to work, but when properly finished, shows a good surface for varnish. Good quality lancewood is a most reliable timber when treated properly, but in many cases it turns out the opposite, though bad treatment. For instance, plating a shaft at the bar to protect the shaft in mounting to, or dismounting from, the trap. If such a shaft meets with a sudden shock, it is liable to break where the shaft plate ends, as this is the weakest part of the shaft; for when the shaft meets with a shock, the part not plated springs and, meeting the resistance of the plated part, it is likely to snap off. Lancewood is subject to decay if constantly in contact with iron without proper protection, so any parts where it is necessary to have iron, such as steps, fulcrums, etc., should be protected with white lead or red lead, both shafts and irons. It is also subject to decay where covered with leather through absorbing moisture. It is a sign of bad quality lancewood when it breaks straight across the grain without such causes of weakness as center leather, iron plates or bolt holes. A good sign of lancewood is when it breaks in long splinters. The best quality is known by its pure yellow color, whilst the inferior had dark streaks through it.
The following is a more technical description appearing in a booklet about imported timber published by the British Department of Industrial and Scientific Research in 1945.
Lancewood (Oxandra Lanceolata)
Usually a short tree of the undergrowth generally under fifteen inches in diameter, rarely attaining twenty four inches diameter. Occurs in Jamaica and forest areas of South America.
Lancewood is a fine textured, straight grained wood of a pale yellowish color noted for its strength and resilience. The weight of seasoned wood is about 62 pounds per square foot.
Hard, tough and elastic, the poles usually show very little taper.
Degamee or Degame Lancewood (Calycophyllum Candidissimum)
This is similar and sometimes used as a substitute. Hard to work with, but has only a small dulling effect on cutting edges. Must be firmly held and use sharp tools. Marketed as slender poles with bark on, twelve or thirteen feet long and rarely exceeding five inches in diameter at the small end.
The name lancewood probably derives from either the small lances evident in the wood when it is split, or from early Māori use of the juvenile tree stems to spear wood pigeons/kererū according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. The wood was not used for full contact jousting lances although there may have been occasions where it was used in creating a pole weapon, called a lance. Those lances would have looked more like a spear or javelin.
Published in part in the Winter 1978 edition of The Carriage Journal. Updated photos and information by Kathleen Haak.