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Thread: Weirdest Wood You've Tried to Turn

  1. #1

    Weirdest Wood You've Tried to Turn

    I know this isn't all that odd, but today I was trimming the massive avocado tree in the back yard, I've been stacking logs from some of the massive branches I've trimmed back for the last couple of years and today, got to wondering what some small turnings from avocado might be like. I've got tons of other trees on my property, now I'm really thinking that I ought to see what they look like turned.

    So my question to everyone is what's the strangest wood you've put on your lathe and how did it turn out?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Inver Grove Heights, MN
    Posts
    798
    I get a lot of wood that isn't common to Minnesota from my cousin in Hawaii. However I think the strangest stuff I have turned is root balls. Here is a small bowl that I posted years ago, but still one of my favorites. It was from the root ball of a friend's linden or basswood tree. The wood from the tree was absolutely plain, but the root ball yielded this bowl. It doesn't show up in the photo but inside one of the dark sections looks like rows of shark's teeth.

    Linden root ball bowl.jpg

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Central PA
    Posts
    56
    While ripping out a row of yew hedges several years back, I noticed the figure and color (cream-pink-purple-browns) of some of the rootballs where my chains had dug into the wood....that stuff turned beautifully. I still have a few rootballs left in my stash.

  4. I turned some pens from spalted burning bush...20150113_180913.jpg

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    365
    I have turned a fair amount of burning bush but almost all of it in a spindle turning mode. It is a lovely turning wood with its bright yellow color and very fine grain. I have played with thread chasing and burning bush is the only American wood that I have been able to successfully use to chase threads.

    Probably the weirdest wood that I have turning was green Dawn Redwood. The smell was TERRIBLE! I'm a chemist and am used to bad smells but this stuff was awful. It was a lot worse than poplar or willow and both of those drove my family out of the house (but I could finish the bowls). The dawn redwood was so bad that I threw the wood into the trash since I was afraid of the smell if I were to burn it.

    Cheers,
    David
    Last edited by David Gilbert; 02-14-2015 at 8:57 AM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    north, OR
    Posts
    1,160
    Funny on the avocado. I borrowed a friends metal lathe and turned a replacement handle for a frying pan about 14 years ago out of a piece of avocado. It made quite a nice handle, not exceptionally figured but reasonably dense and doesn't transmit heat to bad. Still use it all the time. Over the years its acquired quite a nice patina.

    I recently got a blank of Pistachio wood from my cousin and finish turned it (finishing still in progress). Its right at the graft so it has this bizarre and crazy grain (the Pistachio is already pretty swirly and funkily colored). Neat stuff. Its quite hard but doesn't really cut like it, quite nice to work really.

  7. #7
    I know I've seen people turn avocado before, it isn't that bizarre, but when you hear about people turning wood, or even using wood, avocado isn't something that's common. Yes, it's hard to make large boards out of, but for most turning, you don't need a big chunk of wood. I'm sure that people have tried to turn just about everything at least once.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Ottawa, ON Canada
    Posts
    1,468
    I"ve turned a foam pool noodle and lots of soapstone, but I don't imagine they count.
    Grant
    Ottawa ON

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Fredericksburg, TX
    Posts
    2,576
    Avocado wood can be pretty wood in HI, and it is not unusual to see it used for different turnings and smaller fabricated pieces. I don't remember seeing any used for furniture. I did turn a piece several years back from a wood piece I obtained in HI and it is unusual, but not one of the normal woods I would want to turn.

    Redbud is one of the unusual woods that I have turned. A neighbor brought me a section once and I roughed out 2 bowl and did one "hollow" form. Talk about stinky wood. It does have a different color. Again, not on my list to go out of the way to obtain, but might turn if dropped at my door.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Cullowhee N.C.
    Posts
    991
    Rhododendron burl is the most unusual wood I turn much. It isn't available anywhere I know of, but as much as I stay in the woods of Western North Caroina I find them frequest enough to turn turkey and crow calls from. This is a turkey pot call turned with and Rhododendron burl insert in a purple heart pot.
    Jack Mincey


  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Colby, Washington. Just across the Puget Sound from Seattle, near Blake Island.
    Posts
    931
    Was turning a root ball that my son picked up in California (he carried it on his airplane flight in a garbage bag, probably breaking all sorts of Dept of Agriculture laws) and decided to add a bit of CA glue to a part that was punky. Well, it came ALIVE bubbling and wiggling right before my eyes! Turns out it was infested with termites.

  12. #12
    Oddest wood I turned was sabal palm to make a turkey call.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    lufkin tx
    Posts
    2,054

    wood

    Not sure how how rare these are but here goes----Farkleberry, pheasant wood, huge Longleaf pine knots and stump, black and red palm, Flame box elder,mango, sumac, kingwood, madagascar rosewood, lignum vitae, pecky cypress, B&W ebony, redbud, crepe myrtle, apeton, fancy bubinga, satinwood, pear, brown oak, Cuban mahogany, prickley ash, camphor, avodire, blackwood, brazilewood, chinkapin chestnut, goncalo alves, several meranti's, olive, panga panga, blue mahon, Brazilian tulipwood, water ash, yew, several ebonies. These all bowl or vase sizes except for the Farkleberry.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Fort Pierce, Florida
    Posts
    3,498
    Quote Originally Posted by Jack Mincey View Post
    Rhododendron burl is the most unusual wood I turn much. It isn't available anywhere I know of, but as much as I stay in the woods of Western North Caroina I find them frequest enough to turn turkey and crow calls from...Jack Mincey
    My grandfather was able to find many such burls and carved them. As I sit here I have a pipeholder and wall hanging with carved deer on it. I also have the base from a bowl that my brother inherited. That will soon be turned into a natural edge platter. It was harvested at least 60 years ago.

    Other than that, I turned a natural edge bowl from an old oak that fell down across the road from my brothers house. Only a 4" thick shell was left from a tree that was nearly 4' diameter. Very curly. I turned a natural edge bowl and gave it to my brother.
    Retired - when every day is Saturday (unless it's Sunday).

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Carterville, Illinois
    Posts
    390
    Have turned wild grape vine and redbud.
    The hurrier I goes, the behinder I gets.

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