Turning Lignum Vitae

[Peter Scoma]

My mallet has needed to be replaced for years now and I just found a 4x4x12 blank of LV for sale. Having never turned LV before, I'm not sure what to expect and was wondering if anyone else could chime in on their experiences. How difficult is this stuff to work with??

Thanks
PS

[Bob Hallowell]

I put it up there with one of the easiest woods to turn, works great and has a pleasent lemon smell. It will also turn green after awhile and loose the iredesent look.

Bob

[Don Carter]

Peter:
I like to turn it. It is very hard and dense. I have made a shaving brush handle and some bottle stoppers from it. After turning, I placed the pieces in indirect sunlight and they turned green. Then I put finish on them after they turned colors. So far the color has remained.

All the best.

Don

[Peter Scoma]

Thanks for the input guys. The blank I am considering is wet so I'm figuring ill rough it out and set it aside for a while before the final turning. I haven't turned wet stock before, only read about it. Any measures I should take to avoid checking other than waxing the end grain? Also, I'm sure it'll obviously depend on the moisture content of the piece, but does LV dry any slower than most woods due to its density?

Thanks again
Peter

[Wally Dickerman]

You'll find that LV is very hard and is one of the most dense woods to be found. It's very waxy. You'll find that you may have to clean hard wax off your tools. With sharp tools it turns well. You can get a very smooth surface finish using a light touch with a scraper.

I once bought a small log, 10 in. x about 6 ft., from the Navy. (It's so waxy that it was used for self lubricating shaft bearings on small vessels) It had a 50 year old date stamped on it, but it still wasn't completely dry in the center. I found that if it wasn't dry it tended to crack at times and also sometimes warped.

Wally

[Tim Cleveland]

I have found that it turns quite well. Not sure if all LV tends to have this, but everything I've ever worked with has had severe interlocking grain. Having said that though, I still found it fairly easy to get a good finish off the tool, as long as I kept it very sharp.

FYI, LV is so dense that it will sink in water( read that on some wood website, have yet to try it out myself ).

[Allen Neighbors]

I absolutely love Lignum Vitae. Pecancrete is around 1800 something on the hardness scale. Lignum Vitae is 4500. It is one of the most dense woods known to man. Until the 60's it was used as primary bearings for the propshafts in naval vessels. It's a dream to turn, but a bear to sand. You can get beauty right off the tool, but sanding it ruins more sandpaper than anything I've ever done. For an example of what it's like, dip a piece of 120 grit paper in your bucket of anchor seal, then sand something with it.
It won't be long, and we'll have to grow our own.
You can find out a lot about LV at this Website: http://www.lignum-vitae.com

Thanks Pat. Sorry for the typo. The link should work now.