Chinese Tallow

[Dennis Ford]

Chinese Tallow is an invasive tree that you can feel good about cutting down; it can also be pretty good turning wood. It does shrink a lot when drying but is fairly crack resistant. The wood that this piece is made from was snow white when fresh but had some spots by the time this one was turned. It was turned to finish thickness while wet and I expected some interesting warping. I then decided to add some Lichtenburg (SP?) burning. It is now dry and has some finish (lacquer). About 7" diameter. Comments and critiques welcome.

[daryl moses]

Very interesting piece. I like it a lot.

[Maria Alvarado]

At the risk of giving some of us very bad ideas , I would love to see a video of the process on a bowl. Neat piece!

[Brian Kent]

Very beautiful. I had never heard of that process before, so I just checked it out on Youtube. I am really glad you are doing this so I won't have to.

[hu lowery]

Very interesting turning, I like it!

I have chinese tallow on my place, have cut down and burned a shipload of it over the years. When I started turning I selected a good sized one in the edge of the woods and laid it down to turn. I discovered that turning it is different from cutting it down with a chainsaw, handling it, or burning it. Danged stuff made me queasy, advancing to downright nausea! This was very green, and I did get a half-dozen or so blanks roughed before I figured out what was making me sick so I decided to try second turning after it was dry. Same result. A junk bowl lay around my shop a couple of years with a tenon still on it, decided it would make a base for a ball chuck and cut it, dang didn't realize it was chinese tallow! I knew when I cut on it a couple minutes and started feeling queasy.

I turned a little flat not very impressive bowl when the wood was soaking wet just to see what it would do. It was very white, holly white, and turned like butter. I forget what I put on it, something that breathed pretty good. As expected the very wet wood warped a lot when drying, almost comically. Surprisingly no cracks or even severe breakage. Even more surprisingly within a few months it had returned to it's original shape with still no damage and was a pretty pleasing yellow. I kept it as a curiosity and the harder grain is now a faintly contrasting brown to the yellow after several years and the bowl is still as turned other than as it dried there are some faint tool marks that weren't noticeable when it was turned so wet I could have wrung a few cups of water out of it.

Some of the tallow has a deep brown heartwood that is pretty big, what I was hoping to find when I cut the tree down. Has the potential to offer a lot of contrast as a one piece blank or make high contrast segments. The wood is low quality, I don't think it has any commercial value. However, at least in my experience, it is just fine as a turning wood although I have read otherwise. Just be aware that you may react to the wood! I think I have turned or burned the last of those danged blanks.

Hu