wood preference

[Jason Ledbetter]

Being new to turning, I have just been turning "scrap" wood and bits and pieces that people have given me. Mainly because I didn't want to waste good wood just learning.
I now feel like I am ready to turn some things to possibly keep. My question is how to rank the wood in my area as far as ease of turning, quality of finished product, etc. I have access to Birch, Red Oak, White Oak, Wild Cherry, Poplar, Holly, Sweet Gum, Hickory, Maple, and possible Walnut all on my property. I have saw and "anchor seal" in hand, which is best suited for a beginner, who is still learning, to make bowls, vases, and hollow forms?

 

[Steve Worcester]

I am not a big fan of cutting down a tree just for the wood, as trees boost property values around here. So, I would use whatever is on the ground for practice wood.

Given what you have though, poplar is easy to turn and green is pretty fun. I would probably never use any oak, but that is my preference.
Maple is great, but depends on the species. Then several of those mentioned (Hickory, Oak, Wild Cherry) are just too cantankerous to work with , right now (at what I perceive to be your proficiency level).

Hickory is a close cousin to Pecan, and gets way too hard when dry, but does make good fire wood.

 

[Jason Ledbetter]

My proficiency isn't very high so thanks for the advice. I have several acres of land so cutting a couple trees a few acres away won't diminish the property value.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I turned some freshly cut green hickory in April and it was like cutting butter. The same hickory now after drying for more than six months would be like turning a brick, or worse.
Bill

 

[Mark Mandell]

Jason,

Hands down the very best wood for a beginner to learn on is fresh-cut poplar. It will actually help you develop your technique because good cuts will give smooth grain but the results of poor technique will show up immediately. Further, since it's "only poplar" you won't feel so constrained to create masterpieces in a more "noble" variety so you'll be more relaxed. Of course all of it is "only wood."

Hickory makes great fires and even better smoke; next to mesquite, it's my favorite cooking wood.

Have turned both "red" and white oak. OK when wet if you want to finish-turn to final shape in one session. If you are going the rough/re-turn route, a water spray bottle is a necessary turning tool.

Birch can be very nice when it's spalted, otherwise pretty plain.

Cherry and maple are my favorites.

M

 

[Jeff Jilg]

My favorite local wood (central Texas) is Cedar Elm. Typically has great grain and it works nicely from initial cuts when wet to final cuts when dry + sanding. Like Steve said, oak can be tricky. Oak around here would rather crack than become a bowl.

 

[MichaelMouse]

If you have your own land, you probably have some areas where there are leaners, overcrowded, or sick-looking trees. Use them first, but if you have a choice, take the close-grained stuff home to learn on. Birch, cherry and maple are going to be friendly to turn and lovely enough to keep or sell. I assume the "poplar" eveyone refers to is the magnolia L tulipifera rather than a genuine poplar, as those fuzzy devils are a lesson in sharpening and tool presentation out of the "tulip poplar" league.

Nice thing about cutting your own is that you harvest, protect, rough as time permits from pieces fresh off the log all winter. No anchorseal, no problem except bringing them down slowly in a heated environment.

With as many varieties of red oak as there are out there, you probably just want to try the most common. Stinks, rusts everything, but not particulary difficult in some varieties. I've found it to be a good seller.

 

[underdog]

I've not heard that information on Poplar or I'd have been learning on it. Thanks for sharing that.

I've heard the general rule of thumb is that if it flowers (what tree doesn't- they've got to reproduce right?) bears fruit or nuts, that it's usually good to turn. Of course the guy who told me that doesn't like to turn Oak or Walnut... and has too much Pecan for his liking..

For myself I have three trees that will come down this winter. One is a wild Cherry that is diseased and is almost dead anyway. The other two are mutant ornamentals (hybrids). (I wouldn't neglect these kinds of freebies that come down in a neighbors or friends yard.)

One is a Bradford Pear that someone planted right next to a light pole and power line. So it's lopped off on one side, and looks ugly. I hear it turns nice though...

The other one is an ornamental Plum that has been on my hit list for several years just because it's generally unhealthy anyway. It has lovely blossoms for about two days a year, nice contrasty purple leaves for a couple of months and looks bad the rest of the year. Since it's twin did such a nice job spalting just before I took up turning.... And turns soooo nicely, I'm going to harvest and prepare this one on purpose just for turning.

I'm finding that turning small spindles is excellent practice, and I have lots of drops since I work in a cabinet shop... So I've turned several species of letter openers just for fun. Cherry and Maple turn really nice, Walnut I'm in love with, Alder is OK. I'm working on Mahogany one right now.

And I've found really dry White Oak to be the hardest thing to turn that I've found so far. Not that I've tried Hickory or Pecan yet, but I imagine I'll get hold of some before too long...

I turned some English Ivy the other night just to see what it was like.... The first green stuff I've turned. Fun to see the shavings fly off, but I didn't like getting wet!

I think you ought to try all of your available wood out... You'll learn a lot about wood in the process. Just because White Oak is hard to turn doesn't mean you can't learn from the experience. And just because a skew is difficult to master doesn't mean you should never pick it up...

Hope this helps...

 

[JimQ]

If you think Oak is hard, try dry Pistachio. It is even harder.

JimQ

 

[Bob Hadley]

Walnut wins in my book for one of the "best" woods to turn, be it bowls or spindles.
(The best: whatever's currently mounted on the lathe!)

Walnut turns nice wet or dry.
It doesn't crack as easily as some other woods.
It is easy to finish with any varnish, lacquer, shellac polish or wax .
It glues well.
Air-dried walnut and walnut burl have a most dramatic figure and coloring--with browns, blacks, purples and creamy white sapwood.

I believe you should practice with "good" wood whenever possible. Lousy wood can frustrate you with problems that sometimes have nothing to do with your technique.

Turn a good piece of lumber as often as you can. You'll get better faster and have more confidence in dealing with poor lumber when that’s all there is to turn.

BH

 

[Angelo]

Good Wood

The best wood for me is wet Cherry. I like the smell! Has a sweet odor the permeates the entire shop

A

 

[S. Clark]

I like turning cherry too but the smell always makes me want to have an ice cream sunday.

Any fruit woods are great woods to learn with; cherry, apple, pear, or peach. Anything in the Prunus family. I hear citrus woods are nice too. I’ve turned pomegranate and it is marvels!

 

[Gary]

hickory

I was given a good size hickory log; cut a piece off of it with my chain saw (then had to re-sharpen the chain) and tried to turn a small bowl. It seemd like I spent more time re-sharpening the gouge than turning the wood.

I gave it to a neighbor for firewood.

 

[John Taylor]

Free Wood

My favorite wood is free!

1. Make friends with an area tree surgon.

2. Follow the power crews around.

3. or Buy firewood before they split it...

 

[Jeff Jilg]

I agree with John Taylor - the best wood is free!

I have found the best deal is to get acquainted with a couple of landscapers/tree trimmers. I give them a bowl every 2nd or 3rd load. It keeps them interested and before you know it you'll have wood pouring out of the garage (or into it).

 

[dkulze]

Most woods are great, as long as they're still green. Once they dry, like described above with hickory, they can harden up pretty seriously. I've found apple to be particularly bad this way.

Now as to woods to AVOID........

If your nose is sensative, oak, especially of the red varieties, can smell pretty pungent. Oak will also blacken your tools, lathe, and hands as the tannin reacts with iron. Lemon Juice will actually wash it off well.

Box elder (aka manitoba maple and about 10 other names) has the lovely distinction of smelling like old gym socks. Cuts and finishes wonderfully though.

Willow, though lovely, will spray water all over your shop and is terrible for tear out. Trying to get a clean cut will drive you nuts. Cuts better when fully dry but requires an extremely light hand.

Cedar, especially aromatic cedar, is a major irritant and needs good dust protection if you're going to work with it. Nosebleeds, respiratory distress, eye irritation, and sinusitis aren't unheard of.

And, finally, some exotics, like cocobola, will set off acute dermititis in some folks. Doesn't bother me in the slightest but had one guy in our club end up looking like a lobster from the dust.

There's my 10cents worth.
Dietrich

 

[dogdriver]

favorite or only wood

In Alaska my major choice is Birch. I can find a far amout of birch with spalting. It turns well but doesn't like to be sanded to greater than 240. Fortunately that usually is a very nice finish. I can only dream of the wood a lot of you wouldn't regularly use.

 

[underdog]

Dogdriver,

I was wondering how the Diamond Willow would look turned? There some nice contrast there....

And is Aspen similar to Poplar? You have both of those up there. You could do some collaborative work with someone who works with dyes or acrylics...

I've also seen some pretty big burls on trees up there. I think they were spruce burls, so that may not be much of an option.

I was also wondering what Tamarack looks like. I've never messed with the wood much, but have been wondering what it's like recently. Probably a lot like the Spruce...

Just some ideas...

 

[Natastic Emerson]

Hemlock is for lovers.

I think the wood-hungry situation was over this summer.
I had absolutely no wood.
It was horrible. I was going to die from wood starvation.

But, my boss and I were timber-framing a new garage though. We realized that an earlier delivery was one 4"x6" beam short. So we called 'em up. Brought us a hemlock rafter within a couple hours. It turned out that they had cut down and processed that chunk-o'-wood just a few hours before putting it on the truck. I asked my boss if I could have the cutoffs. "Why?", he asked. "Turning", I replied. He looked at me funny, laughed really loud, and walked into his office.

I turned the junk and realized why he laughed at me.

Hemlock is officially the worst. The worst ever. I used every sharpening trick I know of to get my thing past razor super-duper sharp. I used the side of my 8,000 grit water stone, to see if it would help. Nope. The stuff blows chunks. Not once did I get a shaving out of this stuff. Yet I was so addicted to turning, that I roughed out 6 hemlock bowls, Five of which are drying, One I nuked. Dried, Hemlock cuts better, but tear-out is still a big factor when remounting it. However the finished one has the most excellent flame figuring I've ever seen on its side.

The moral is:
Hemlock sucks as a green wood, but pays off if you can get a dried chunk.

This was a completely irrelevant story, but it is 11:30 on a saturday night, and it is too cold/I am too cool to be out with my friends.

 

[spinsdawood]

I have turned a lot of wild cherry. It has a pleasant smell and has a beautiful grain pattern and color. (in my opinion) Walnut is another favorite of mine. I would suggest a C/D by John Jordan about wood selection.It has been a tremendous help to me in my turning to date. He covers a lot of how wood reacts as it dries. I hope this helps,


Jim

 

[Jeff Jilg]

Natastic - how about a pic of one of the finished hemlock pieces, ya got my interest!

 

[Natastic Emerson]

Sorry, I already sold the hemlock bowl with the flame on it before I bothered to take a picture.
My workshop consists of some studs and shingles (kind of cold in New Hampshire), so I can't turn until spring comes around.
Otherwise I'd nuke another and pop it on the lathe for you.
Hemlock looks an awful lot like pine, yellow like pine with a penetrating oil finish, a tad bit more white than pine with a surface finish.
You can get a cool effect with hemlock (I don't know if you can do it with other softwoods, hemlock is the only one I've turned thus far). Hand-sand (I hand sand everything) a while with the 80 grit sand paper on the lathe, removing lots of material. The Summer and Winter growths (or Spring and Fall?) vary in hardness enough that you can give your piece a ribbed texture following the grain. You can't do it with a steel tool, but the flexible nature of the sandpaper allows the grit to move in and out every growth ring. The 80 grit scratches come out easy, because it's a softwood.

 

[dkulze]

Hey natastic,

You can make this effect even greater with a steel brush. If you've got a wire wheel for you grinder, mount it on the drill press and work with the grain direction. You'll be amazed how deep it will go.

Also, a friend in S. NH has a sandblast cabinet and can chase the same effect.

By the way, you should drop by a club meeting in Woburn MA sometime.

Dietrich

 

[Natastic Emerson]

Thanks for the tips Dietrich.

I also have ready access to a sandblasting cabinet, but am still experimenting with other techniques for the time being. I haven't had too much fondness for pieces that I have seen sandblasted. However one of these days I'll get into the gloves and see if I can do something wild.
I didn't know that about the wire wheel. I've seen, heard, and touched many pieces with wire brush effects, but didn't know it could be used for selective grain removal. I'll probably have to mess around with that one a bit.