Any wood is turnable. I've even turned balsa wood. But some woods are
EASIER than others and that is what the first poster was asking about.
Believe me if I found a piece of nicely figured oak it would end up on the
lathe. Too much nice wood in my pile to waste time making something that
looks like the floors and furniture in my house.
Tony Manella
ndd1"at"prolog.net (remove "at")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners
www.lehighvalleywoodturners.com

"Henry St.Pierre" wrote in message
. 97.142...
"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in
:

Figure not included. :-) In our club we have one turner who likes
oak, none of the others will touch the stuff. With all of the oak we
have here in PA I have seen only about 20 turnings (out of 100's if
not 1000's) made from oak. I've turned about 150 species of wood into
spheres but never tried to make a bowl out of oak, why work a
difficult wood when there are so many others to choose from.
Tony Manella
ndd1"at"prolog.net (remove "at")


Tony,
I've turned quite a bit of white oak; mostly mallets, tool handles,
reproduction spindles etc. I never really thought about turning a bowl of
oak. All of the oak I've turned was well dried. It wasn't the easiest wood
to turn, but I didn't find it that troublesome. It liked sharp tools and a
patient touch.

Hank