Ralph
It makes sense that the bark looks like it may not stay on. But keeping the
bark on for a natural edge is a bit of a crap shoot anyway and the drier the
wood the less chance of keeping it, most of the time. Occasionally I piece
of wood will dry so that the bark feels cemented on but that is extremely
rare in my experience. I would rough these out now. I am not a cypress
turner (I could send you my address :-) ) but the fun part of turning is
roughing wet wood and stnding in the "rain" while you do it.
By the way, orient the wood carefully for turning. You will not only have
the usual lengthwise distortion but also stress distortion from the reaction
wood of a limb.
--

God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com


"Comcast Newsgroups" wrote in message
. ..
Thanks for your input Rick. This wood is really wet, just cut a week ago
so it will be awhile before I get down to rough turning some natural edge
pieces. Perhaps others will have more input re the bark on this specific
species before I get brave enough to try it. I have turned Italian
Cypress before but it didn't look anything like the black. The bark just
doesn't look like it will hold, if that makes any sense. I am hoping for
some good news.

Thanks again......Ralph

wrote in message
oups.com...


On Jan 27, 1:38 pm, "Comcast Newsgroups"
wrote:
Anyone have any information relative to wood characteristics of Black
Cypress. Have some pieces with nice bark and I am a natural edge bigot
but
I am not sure if the bark will hold. Anyone with experience with this
wood
care to comment?

Oh, the wood is from very large limbs, probably 14+" in diameter.
Because
of the weight of the limbs the pith is very low resulting in basically
pith
free turning, little waste.

Thanks.....Ralph

Ralph, I don't have any experience with "Black Cypress" but, I have
recently turned 12 - 14 pieces from "plain old" Cypress. The bark on
the wood I turned held very well. I'm just beginning to experiment
with natural edge and Cypress seems to be quite conducive.

Please post pictures as I'm intrigued.

Rick