Weirdest Wood You've Tried to Turn

[Ryan Mooney]

Have turned wild grape vine and redbud.

I'm guessing the vine would have been ridiculously stringy?

I've seen redbud used for branch buttons and it had some really nice contrast wood in the small stuff - does that translate into the same for larger pieces?

huge Longleaf pine knots and stump

Pine knots!! Those must have been .. interesting... Did you keep a bucket of turpentine by the lathe to wash off the pitch as you went?

[robert baccus]

The big pine knots were 8"x6" long and came out of a riverbed--very dry as pitchy goes.

[Tom Wilson66]

Muscidine vine was a bit stringy, but a sharp skew cleaned it up pretty well. I had made a bird house from a 3" diameter piece. Once sanded, it was fairly smooth.
The redbud I had did not have much sapwood, it was about 8" diameter and the sapwood was maybe 1/2" thick. It has aged to a nice chocolte brown between the rings with the rings a very dark chocolate brown,

[Fred Perreault]

It may not be too be weird, but the most guaranteed figure and contrast I have been able to find in my area is from the low stump and root sections (almost wing-like) below ground from black locust. There is usually crazy grain, and yet relatively uniform to turn. We have lots of locust around here....it's a weed...... so I get the very large stumps, wash them off, let them age gray some, hack them up and then turn both natural edge and conventional. :-)

[Wes Ramsey]

One of the prettiest HFs I've seen was from a cedar root wad. He did a CA finish on it and I've never seen such figure in cedar. The finish was spectacular as well! 6 or 7 years ago a tornado hit some property we have in MO and took out a lot of timber we'd been saving - mostly mulberry, hackberry, hickory, cherry and oak. The undergrowth was so thick that nobody had been in there for many years and while cleaning up I found wild grapevines that were 6-8", a mulberry that was maybe 18" across with bright yellow wood like Osage Orange, a hackberry that was easily 5' across and several large cherry burls. To my undying shame I traded the biggest cherry burl, which was about 26" across and wrapped all the way around the 10" trunk, for MOST of a Harbor Freight lathe that I've yet to fix up for use. I hadn't gotten into the sport yet so I didn't know anything about what he had, but he knew full well what I had. I still have one of the smaller burls and will make something out of it one of these days.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Orchid tree. The wood is not all that "weird" but very smelly. Two of my neighbors and my wife asked, "what are you turning?" I turn with an organic respirator, so I can't smell anything I turn. But I guess others can. Must have been strong, since I've turned camphor and Italian Cypress, both are very aromatic (in a good way) and no one had asked me anything.

[Michael Mills]

Jumping the gun a bit as I haven't turned it yet but I hope to in the next few weeks. I now have some Crepe Murder to try and turn. Trunk is about 5.5" and scene of the murder is about 12" diameter (more or less). Here is an article (and contest) about Crepe Murder. Maybe I can give this one a new life with a bit of turning. Note, most are pruned back to a nub each year so the new growth/limbs do not get as large as some of these. They typically form almost a ball after years and years of sprouts cut back.

http://thedailysouth.southernliving....e-murder-2015/

[Joseph M Lary]

calls.jpgI turned these from??????????????? composite decking. just messing around with duck call I turn some for the Duck Unlimited banquet . I did not give them these because they wouldn't hold up, they are 2 pc couldn't find a glue that would hold well enough for me .

[Scott Lux]

I've turned a fair amount of Bush Honeysuckle. It's an invasive, so I kill a lot of it. But the wood is wonderful to turn green. Dry it's a little soft for my taste. But then I like honeylocust and apple so go figure.

[Roger Chandler]

Jumping the gun a bit as I haven't turned it yet but I hope to in the next few weeks. I now have some Crepe Murder to try and turn. Trunk is about 5.5" and scene of the murder is about 12" diameter (more or less). Here is an article (and contest) about Crepe Murder. Maybe I can give this one a new life with a bit of turning. Note, most are pruned back to a nub each year so the new growth/limbs do not get as large as some of these. They typically form almost a ball after years and years of sprouts cut back.

http://thedailysouth.southernliving....e-murder-2015/

I have never heard of crepe murder.... ....but have heard of crepe myrtle........now that is a horse of a different color! Now after reading the article, I wonder if making a beautiful turning from that will be considered murder? Something beautiful from that will be an improvement and show that sometimes we can use nature's bounty to enhance life on this planet! I guess we are "tree huggers" of a different sort........we embrace the wood for what it can be used for!

Looking forward to see what you make out of that, Micheal!

[robert baccus]

Tineo was weird--warped like crazy but beautiful. Put some on the shelf waxed up and they turned into a trapezoid.