• It's time to cast your vote in the April 2025 Turning Challenge. (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Steve Bonny for "A Book Holds What Time Lets Go" being selected as Turning of the Week for 28 April, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

China Berry

John Hicks

John Hicks

Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Messages
695
Likes
973
Location
Shingletown CA
Has anyone turned much China Berry? I just rough turned a bunch; can't wait for it to dry, so I can finish turn it. The largest bowl I got out of it so far is 20 inches across. I'm keeping an eye out for more, but in Northern California, there doesn't seem to be much.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3756.JPG
    IMG_3756.JPG
    549 KB · Views: 48
John, have you ever seen or turned Sugar Berry? Just looked up Chinaberry, wow! Sugarberry is one of the lightest colored woods I've turned and only turned it because I was helping an elderly retiree clear a monster tree from his yard and grabbed a couple of pieces to rough out as I usually do. Do not like white looking wood as it normally looks dirty when finishing, at least for me. After curing for a year I finished turning a bowl and though it did not have that dirty look, it was bland, no detail at all. I thought about repurposing it as heat but then on a hunch I rubbed on some black walnut oil stain...PB171076.JPG
 
Last edited:
Marvin Jones said:
John, have you ever seen or turned Sugar Berry? Just looked up Chinaberry, wow! Sugarberry is one of the lightest colored woods I've turned and only turned it because I was helping an elderly retiree clear a monster tree from his yard and grabbed a couple of pieces to rough out as I usually do. Do not like white looking wood as it normally looks dirty when finishing, at least for me. After curing for a year I finished turning a bowl and though it did not have that dirty look, it was bland, no detail at all. I thought about repurposing it as heat but then on a hunch I rubbed on some black walnut oil stain...View attachment 42936
Click to expand...
Almost has the grain of red oak. What type of stain did you use?
 
Sugar berry is a type of hackberry.
Chinaberry is a softer hardwood.

Haven’t turned much chinaberry. One of its features is a hard and soft parts in the growth rings. When sandblasted the grain shows nicely.

This is a snapshot of a chinaberry piece that shows the wonderful texture sandblasting can deliver103045DF-3557-4D36-B008-DFD9AEB1D42B.jpeg
Sandblasted background airbrushed with some yellow and orange.
 
Last edited:
Went out to see if I could find the can of stain and I have used it up...it was an oil based stain, probably from Walmart. Black Walnut, really dark. The wood is so white, much whiter than it's cousin Hackberry that it is hard to see the grain pattern, whitest (probably not a word.) wood I've messed with. I rarely use stain unless I'm building flatwork or repairing furniture. It's even lighter in color than Ash. What a surprise when the stain went on. I lightly sanded and wiped on oil poly mixed with thinner, about 10 coats.
 
As I looked at Marvin's picture it did look a lot like Elm wood, and when I then checked of what it was I found it to be in the Elm family, so no wonder the wood did look like Elm.

Nice Bowl Marvin, the stain brought out the grain very nicely 1thumb.gif
 
Thanks Leo. Yes, really pretty piece, John. I just looked up the wood and it's supposed to be a problem tree and found here in Arkansas. Maybe someone will call me to remove their's if it's that much of a spreader. Article says it spreads kind of like cane, shooting underground roots/ sprouts
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top