Turning Ficus?

[David Eppler]

A co-worker is taking down their ficus tree and has offered me some of it. There is one trunk that is around 12" in diameter. Is this wood any decent to turn? If nothing else it would be unusual as I most often see ficus as a container plant in an office building.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Ficus has a lot of varieties. At least around here. Some of them get really really big. Well, big for Hawaii standards. They be fairly light in color, and texture. Sometimes very interesting grain patterns. Since the wood is light, (not hard) it may be a challenge to finish. I have not attempted to turn it, but I have cut several trees down.

Free wood is worth turning. A friend of mine turned a Banyan (a relative to Ficus) that was quite interesting.

[Ryan Baker]

Wow! A 12" ficus? I've never seen one anywhere near that size. Give it a try and find out!

[alex carey]

ugly wood imo, also quite soft, tore out a lot while i was turning it.

[Ken Whitney]

If it is an edible fig the sap can be very irritating. Maybe for ficus in general.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I turned a couple of pieces and it was a little difficult to turn IMHO. Putting finish on as Kyle said was a little difficult. If it is free I would still get some and give it a go.

[Joe Kaufman]

Freshly cut Ficus looks like it could have possibilities and I saved several pieces. After it dries, it is very light weight, lacks color and is full of fiber. I attemped to turn one piece (dry) then threw the rest away. When dry, you need to use a glue block to hold it for turning.

Joe

[Alec Moseley]

I turned a couple of small pieces awhile back, and liked the look of it and the way it worked, but the dust from it irritated my skin and eyes worse than anything else I've ever worked with, so if you turn it, protect yourself.

[David Woodruff]

Never saw one and it would be a different. I know a guy that turned a vase from a huge poison ivy vine. It was actually very pretty wood tha, brown, yellow stripes. My curiosity only goes so far.

[Jim King]

This is the first piece of ficus I tried to work with. I was going To make table tops but when it dried each of the dozens of stems dried and seperated and I had a pile of kindling. Then I tried turning some and as said above it is very soft and I would not bother with it again.