Being an Oregon turner, I have turned a lot of myrtle. Mostly I turn
it wet/green, to final thickness, then let it dry and warp before
sanding and finishing. Usually it cuts very nicely, but it can have
irregular grain. It can also have a fair amount of silica (sand) in it
which will dull tools fairly quickly. As to the tearout, like others
have said, sharp tools. Other than that, I have noticed that dry wood
will get more tearout than wet wood. If you are making fine cuts with
little whispy shavings, and your tools are freshly sharpened, You can
wet the wood down with water, or an oil finish, then make another
light cut. You may have to do this a couple of times to get it all
out. A gouge works better for this than a scraper held flat, and a
shear scraper (held at an angle) works better than a flat scraper, but
not quite as well as a gouge. Then some times you do have to start
with the 80 grit gouge.
robo hippy

On May 3, 9:41*pm, "William Noble" wrote:
it turned easily for me - it's california bay laurel by the way, they call
it Myrtle in Oregon to make it sound special

if you are getting a lot of tearout either your tools aren't really sharp,
or your presentation of the tool to the wood is flawed, or there is
something wrong with the piece of wood (rotten, etc)

"Kevin Cleary" wrote in message

news:ZJ3Tj.347$JF1.184@trndny06...

Has anyone had any experience turning this wood?I'm turning a bowl and I'm
getting a lot of tearing.My tools are sharp.Any suggestions.

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