It's happened again (google troubles)

I used your exact question, and I don't see a problem. I must be missing something.

Peter

Not true. I made a slight modification to your query and Google's first result told me the answer is Queensland Maple .

OOPS OOPS I should have asked the question I posed in my whinge.Plus pluses I asked it every which way but without a plus for every word. I could not put a minus for the rocking horse after using it. (I tried it but got nowhere)

So whenever I have a long question I should fill it up with pluses.

I take back my oops's because even with the plusses there is still not suitable answers that are straight forward, Neither does the tinyurl. The answers are mostly from commercial rocking horse makers. There is still no suitable answers. I stick by my original whinge.

I just used 'rocking horse' in Google search, and got these in the first few listings:

wooden toys from Toy Factory Gumeracha The Big Rocking Horse wooden toys, Australia's largest range of wooden toys, home of The Big Rocking Horse, Gumeracha South Australia, biggest range, rocking horses, wooden toys.

- Cached - Similar

Rocking Horses Mr Fred Rocking Horses are made from Australian hard wood and are crafted as an heirloom for future generations. Each Rocking Horse has red cedar ? ...

- Cached - Similar

Looks quite reasonable to me. Ring up the guys at Gumeracha, they would probably tell you. What is wrong with a commercial source ? How many private/hobby rocking horse makers would you expect to advertise on the net ?

Why would you think the timber used for carving rocking horses is any different from any other timber good for carving ?

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I would think that looking at areas like the horse's legs, that are relatively thin, bent in the middle, and being rocked back and forth are getting the weight shifting on them to different angles, getting lots of stress, you would want to have a strong timber to be able to cope with this.

It also has to support up the horse's body, that must be quite heavy, probably 1-2 playful and excited kids on top of the horse that want to try and rock it as hard as possible, jump up and down in the saddle etc.

The stresses involved in those horse legs could be quite high.

Other things like table, cabinet legs, and similar furniture would never cop "abuse" like this. Usually the load is straight down, and is not swinging and moving, and the legs are typically straight, and can be made thicker, where with the horse the legs have to be proportional to the body of the horse.

t

I have a book on making rocking horses. It is british the timbers mentioned are not used in australia. The legs could probably be any straight grained hardish wood but I was looking for the body and head. It needs to be softish straight grained no knots etc (apparently limewood is ideal but not available here) My problem will be solved eventually, but not by google as soon as it sees rocking horse it assumes that I could not possibly want to make my own and proceeds to offer commercial makers and kit suppliers by the hundreds. I am looking for timber suppliers of suitable wood for rocking horses in Australia. They can be made of laminated ply sheets,but I did not want that. My frustration is with search engines and the way they now handle queries of a technical nature. I realize that probably my best avenue is forums and asking questions

Google is not a benevolent company they are in it for the money, despite their corporate slogan "do no evil" etc.

The recent tweaks of adding more java coding with "Google instant" and the "image search" changes are annoying to say the least when it tries to second guess what you want.

With the Images you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the search results, to change it back to how it was before.

I have worked out your can add "&sout=1" on the search string to revert to the how it was before the change.

You could also delete the superfluous browser information it adds onto the search string, this increases the speed of the response also.

With your search, this guy may know the answer?

Google search with privacy

Thanks, it is just that I get frustrated, the search engines might work for the majority but do not want to know how to deal with my questions

You need to learn to ask them better, or ask a related question that will get you to your answer. Google might be very clever, but it doesn't have human-level intelligence yet. It can't tell that you're asking your question in a four-times refined subject area: "Rocking horse -> Building your own -> In Australia -> what woods suit". And even if it *could* tell that, there's a distinct possibility that it's never come across any answers to that question. So ask a different question, and refine.

In any case, the lack of an answer has nothing to do with Vox's bogus claim that they want to make a profit from giving you a bum steer. Google knows perfectly well that you only use the service and see the adverts because you usually get the answers you want. Conspiracy theories notwithstanding.

If you want to know what wood might be suitable for building a rocking horse, why not start by searching for sites that tell you how to build a rocking horse? Then search inside that site for advice on woods, or for the qualities required for the woods. Or search for a forum where people might talk about or answer questions about rocking-horse building, and post a question there?

You've already been given an excellent answer here anyhow. Use Queensland Maple. It's not a maple, but it has these admirable qualities:

• It's strong

• It's tough (not brittle)

• It's easy to carve

• It's not unattractive

• It's not too heavy

• It's pretty cheap

All the reasons that Maton and many other local guitar makers use it extensively, especially for guitar necks. It'll suit your job perfectly.

And next time, go bleat in a wood-working newsgroup instead of an electronics one ffs.

Clifford Heath.

On Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:29:23 +1100, Clifford Heath wrote: I always use Google with javascript turned off. Seems to work better that way!

What I want to know is what are going to do with all the droppings from that rocking horse? They alone could be worth a fortune. Apparently they're very rare!

-- Sell your surplus electronic components at

Search or browse for that IC, capacitor, crystal or other component you need. Or find new components at

I did all that and got no satisfaction. There are almost no sites that are not commercial, on building rocking horses that a search engine will point to once you mention rocking horses. as soon as you write the words rocking horses, the engine points you only to commercial sites and not the few non commercial sites (Which I think do exist)

The answer that I was given,maple was for frame and base which would be ideal for that purpose but is not what I wanted (the body and head)and the wrong colour if I can get timber similar to other country's recommendations for the horse in Australia . From what I have gleaned so far pacific maple is not widely used for the horse

I had already exhaustively searched in other places and was venting on the foibles of search engines which is distantly electronic.

Also knows as "linden" and "basswood", a quick google suggests that the australian supply goes into making venetian blinds :)

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Thanks I found that but I want it in big chunks so I gave up on it.

The plusses are the default and Google will insert them for you. My search (the tinyurl) gave you Queensland Maple as the specific wood for rocking horses. If you want more, modify your search. I assume you are familiar with the advanced search .

I agree that there is a real problem in that commercial organisations spend large sums of money optimising their sites so that any remotely relevant query returns their site. My main gripe is that Google does not distinguish between questions and answers. If I ask "How do I fix Error Code 123" I will get thousands of hits for the question rather than an answer.

Well thanks for the interesting thread. I know a lot more about rocking horses and wood than I did this morning :)

Hope the finished horse comes up well.

By my reading that is the base ,which is the stand that the horse rocks on not the actual horse. So far none of my research has recommended it for the horse,

I have found a woodworking forum which is some help

I just despair at what search engines have turned in to from what they used to be.

Rather than specifying the usage, why not ask about "carving timbers"? After all, that's what you really require...Then you can make an assessment of each as to its suitability for the rocking horse. Anyway, woodworking forums would be the best place to ask.

Although it has developed in to a full blown horse discussion my original post was moaning about google because I was getting nowhere elsewhere with it. I am now getting somewhere elsewhere and have even caused google to put my searches upfront