Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

-Terry

Elm
Oak
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

As a new turner I would avoid the oak, difficult to turn and not many
turners like it, and the cottonwood, it is very soft. The others are all
nice to turn. If you get any silver maple put it in a plastic bag for 30 to
90 days in a shaded place and you will get some nice, albeit soft, nicely
spalted wood. Hackberry also spalts nice, just leave it outside in the
shade and roll the log once a month.
Tony Manella
ndd1"at"prolog.net (remove "at")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners

wrote in message
ups.com...
Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

-Terry

Elm
Oak
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

I have turned about 20 bowls out of all different types of wood.
My wife's favorate is my only oak piece. Okay, it is heavily curled, but
still...

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..
As a new turner I would avoid the oak, difficult to turn and not many
turners like it, and the cottonwood, it is very soft. The others are all
nice to turn. If you get any silver maple put it in a plastic bag for 30
to 90 days in a shaded place and you will get some nice, albeit soft,
nicely spalted wood. Hackberry also spalts nice, just leave it outside in
the shade and roll the log once a month.
Tony Manella
ndd1"at"prolog.net (remove "at")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners

wrote in message
ups.com...
Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

-Terry

Elm
Oak
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

Elm can be kind of stinky when fresh cut, but the smell goes away as
it drys. I like Oak, but can't sell it. Both the maples are good, and
the silver maple is a bit soft, and does spalt nicely. Cotton wood is
soft and stringy, and tends to stink (like someone threw up). The
smell in it doesn't go away as it dries. The Osage and locust are both
very nice, and very hard/dense woods and a bit more difficult to turn.
Mulberry is related to the osage. Never been able to get my hands on
any mulberry. You should also look for sycamore, black cherry, ash
(nice but doesn't sell very well due to light color) and walnut.
robo hippy
wrote:
Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

-Terry

Elm
Oak
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

Hi Terry

Nothing wrong with any of those woods really, I have turned all of
those successfully, and then some, all have their own special things,
I think by turning all the different woods you get a better overall
turning skill, as they give you different challenges.

Also keep in mind as we talk about these woods that each and every log
is different, also saying Elm, or Oak, and we are talking about 60 or
so Oak species in N.A. and half a dozen Elm species, and there can be
big differences in those woods.

The Maples turn all fairly well, some are softer like Manitoba Maple
and Silver Maple that will give you tear-out with bad tool technic,
also the drying of the turnings fairly easy.

Elms turn OK, the cambium layer is stringy, the wood, except for the
Rock Elm, is not hard and drying is no challenge.

Hackberry is a lot like Elm

Osage turns good when green, gets harder to turn when old and dry,
beautiful wood when finished, dry slowly and you're fine.

Locust, Black Locust is a lot like Osage, in all ways, Honey locust is
more like Oak open grain and can be splintery when dry, nice turning
wood.

Mulberry turns like a dream, and looks great new and later with
darkened color, but a real challenge to dry it without splitting,
total seal and paper bag, does give me the best results, though still
unpredictable.

Oaks, I have turned both white and red, never had a problem with it, I
know a lot of turners say they have problems, but I finish turned
green Red and White Oak, and rough turned, dry and return Red and
White without problems.

One important thing with all this wood, start with wood that has no
splits, start and complete the turning without having it sit for hours
or days while only partially turned, wrap a plastic bag around the
wood while taking a break or at mealtime, and don't try to hurry the
drying, give it time while you rough turn and practice--practice--
practice, and by then you'll be better able to finish turn your
earlier work.

You got to learn to walk before you can learn to run !!!!!!!

Also come back to the forum, and ask questions, just remember the only
dumb question is the question you don't ask !!

Here are a few turning related photo-albums, if you are interested.

http://homepage.mac.com/l.vanderloo/PhotoAlbum30.html

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo


On Jun 27, 10:09 am, wrote:
Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

-Terry

Elm
Oak
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

Hello,

As a professional woodturner, I have turned thousands and thousands of bowls
platters and hollow forms over the last 12 years from all of the mentioned
species and can offer these observations:

Note: Here is a link to an article I wrote on oil finishes that shows some
of these timbers finished, to give you an idea of what they look like when
completed:

http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com/oil-finish.html


Elm: Nice to work and can offer really nice colouring on some species. I
particularly like the American Elm's (spalt nice) and the Winged Elms.
Winged Elms turn like a dream and have a contrasting darker heartwood.

Oak: My least favourite of those mentioned, but if quartersawn to show the
rays, or if the piece has lots of curl (fiddleback), it can be rewarding.
Oak has really large pores, so if you're going to be turning bowls, you may
want to seal the interior surfaces to make cleaning easier. I usually use
Shellac for this, but other products will also work. BTW, Water Oak makes
really nice hollow forms when spalted...

Sugar Maple: Nice Maple to work. It can be a tad bland at times, but it
offers a nice background for colouring and burning and it easy to work.

Silver Maple: Oh how sweet it is... :-) I love Silver Maple!!! Did I mention
that I love Silver Maple??? :-) It is a magnificent timber to work and can
produce some ultra high figured blanks with exceptional colouring. I can't
say enough good things about Silver Maple!

Cottonwood: Only nice if you can get some really coloured logs with lots of
fiddleback. It can smell like an outhouse, so it has to be exceptional or I
pass on this one.

Osage Orange: We call this Bodark in Texas. Nice timber to work, easy to
turn and finish. It takes a really high polish and can make some nice
pieces. The yellow colour darkens over time, unless you apply preventative
measures to forestall this degradation.

Locus: Nice timber, interesting grain patterns on some examples. Worth your
time if you can get some.

Hackberry: Grows like a weed around here... Pretty bland unless you spalt
it, which is easy to do. Otherwise, it's rather boring and bland.

Mulberry: Really nice timber to work and grows like a wee here as well. Nice
yellow colour that mellows like Osage unless preventative measures are taken
when finishing. Mulberry can easily ripple between the early wood and the
late wood rings unless properly sanded. However, if heavily over sanded on
purpose, it makes a very interesting textured piece. Sort of like a blasted
poor man's Cedar of Lebanon.

Good luck to you and best wishes in all of your woodturning endeavours!
--
Better Woodturning and Finishing Through Chemistry...

Steven D. Russell
Eurowood Werks Woodturning Studio, The Woodlands, Texas
Machinery, Tool and Product Testing for the Woodworking and Woodturning
Industries

Website: http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com

Free Monthly Woodturning Newsletter * Your email is kept confidential
Sign up at: http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com/lathe-talk.html


On 6/27/07 9:09 AM, in article
, "
wrote:

Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

-Terry

Elm
Oak
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:09:58 -0700, wrote:

Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

In a word, just grab it all and see what you like.

I haven't turned all the stuff on this list, but I can tell you about
a few of them.

Elm
Oak

Oak is hard, and cracks like crazy. I don't turn it, and use it in
the firepit instead- YMMV.

Sugar Maple
Silver Maple

Both are very rewarding, offering nice figure and they can be highly
polished- looking almost like glass even before a finish touches them.
They spalt well also, and that's a great look (like black ink lines
wound into the grain.) It's sometimes more challenging, but I often
nab maple logs that have fungi growing on them, as the wood tends to
be wild inside. The more it has decayed, the harder it is to keep
together, but it displays a lot more color and character.

It's easy to turn wet, but hard as a stone when dry. So hard, I
usually wear gloves when roughing a dried blank to prevent the little
slivers from tearing up my hands.

CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

Never turned these ones, but you forgot a few. I'm also in the rural
Midwest (Wisconsin), and one of my favorite things to turn is Birch.
You have to get it quickly after it has been cut, because it rots away
in no time at all, but in my opinion, it's a seriously nice looking
and under-rated wood, especially if you can get a crotch piece or one
with a couple of knots in it. Doesn't split easily, either.

Aromatic Cedar is around, but usually in someone's yard as an
ornimental tree. It looks great, you just need to wear a dust mask
if you normally don't.

Apple trees have some great looking wood as well- I've heard it's
tough to keep from cracking, but I've had good luck with the piece a
guy at work gave me. Definately wouldn't turn any away.

While I've never turned it, I've seen a lot of really nice pieces
turned from Box Elder (or Manitoba Maple, if you prefer) Sometimes
it's got some dramatic red streaks in it that look great.

Willow is okay, but smells bad and isn't quite as nice looking as some
others. I have a ton of it, but I don't think I'll use it all.

Black walnut, is of course, walnut- and beyond reproach in almost any
form of woodworking.

And lowly Basswood is great for practice or if you feel like doing
some painting. It doesn't look like much, but it's easy to turn, and
the trees tend to be huge.

I avoid pine at all costs, no matter what I'm doing, but your tastes
may vary.

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")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners
www.lehighvalleywoodturners.com

"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message
...
I have turned about 20 bowls out of all different types of wood.
My wife's favorate is my only oak piece. Okay, it is heavily curled, but
still...

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..
As a new turner I would avoid the oak, difficult to turn and not many
turners like it, and the cottonwood, it is very soft. The others are all
nice to turn. If you get any silver maple put it in a plastic bag for 30
to 90 days in a shaded place and you will get some nice, albeit soft,
nicely spalted wood. Hackberry also spalts nice, just leave it outside
in the shade and roll the log once a month.
Tony Manella
ndd1"at"prolog.net (remove "at")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners

wrote in message
ups.com...
Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

-Terry

Elm
Oak
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

I really enjoyed turning some white oak a friend brought me from Oregon.

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..
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")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners
www.lehighvalleywoodturners.com

"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message
...
I have turned about 20 bowls out of all different types of wood.
My wife's favorate is my only oak piece. Okay, it is heavily curled, but
still...

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..
As a new turner I would avoid the oak, difficult to turn and not many
turners like it, and the cottonwood, it is very soft. The others are
all nice to turn. If you get any silver maple put it in a plastic bag
for 30 to 90 days in a shaded place and you will get some nice, albeit
soft, nicely spalted wood. Hackberry also spalts nice, just leave it
outside in the shade and roll the log once a month.
Tony Manella
ndd1"at"prolog.net (remove "at")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners

wrote in message
ups.com...
Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

-Terry

Elm
Oak
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
CottonWood
Osage Orange
Locus
Hackberry
Mulberry

Hello,

I'm no big fan of Oak, but on occasion you can run across a nice blank...
This is a link to a Spalted Water Oak piece I did a few years ago that
turned out rather nice. Sometimes, new turners opt for Oak because its so
plentiful in most parts of the country and it's so easy to get green. When
they turn it, they find out that it can be a very bad boy and usually
migrate to other easier and more highly figured timbers.

http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com/images/jorell.jpg

I must say that Oak burls can be quite impressive, although they experience
quite a bit of shrinkage and gross deformation upon drying. Quartersawn Oak
blanks can be nice as well, but I would much rather be turning Mesquite,
Ash, Elm, or Pecan-crete, which are easy to get in my neck of the woods.
That way, I can leave all of the Oak for flooring... :-) It looks great as a
floor! Take care and all the best to you and yours!


On 6/28/07 8:00 AM, in article ,
"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote:

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")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners
www.lehighvalleywoodturners.com

--
Better Woodturning and Finishing Through Chemistry...

Steven D. Russell
Eurowood Werks Woodturning Studio, The Woodlands, Texas
Machinery, Tool and Product Testing for the Woodworking and Woodturning
Industries

Website: http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com
Free Monthly Woodturning Newsletter * Your email is kept confidential
Sign up at: http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com/lathe-talk.html

wrote in message
ups.com...
Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

Oak, and there are a _lot_ of different oaks, is a sure seller where I come
from. Unfortunately, it's not common. Got a few useable pieces delivered
with my firewood a few years back, and turned up a bunch of it. Northern
red and regular old white are all I've turned, and it's not particularly
difficult, as long as you realize that it rusts your tools and lathe when
it's green.
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...rofile.jpgOnly wish it weren't so unattractive.

"George" wrote in message
. net...

wrote in message
ups.com...
Living in the rural midwest I have many oppotunities to collect newly
fallen timber. My question is given this selection of timber what's my
best selection and what should I just stay away from. BTW, I'm very
new to turning!

Oak, and there are a _lot_ of different oaks, is a sure seller where I
come from. Unfortunately, it's not common. Got a few useable pieces
delivered with my firewood a few years back, and turned up a bunch of it.
Northern red and regular old white are all I've turned, and it's not
particularly difficult, as long as you realize that it rusts your tools
and lathe when it's green.
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...able-Again.jpg

http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ak-Profile.jpg

Only wish it weren't so unattractive.

Ran 'em together. Try this.

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..

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.

Amen to that. I had a goodly supply of white oak, some of it turned when
wet and the rest dried before turning. And I can say with complete candor
that I've never been as frustrated with any other wood. Tearouts and
catches are common, and the end products are really quite indistinguished
unless the grain is irregular. Simply not worth the effort and frustration.
Recently a neighbor cut down a black oak and was surprised when I turned
down his offer to take what I wanted.

Max

"Maxprop" wrote in message
ink.net...

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..

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.

Amen to that. I had a goodly supply of white oak, some of it turned when
wet and the rest dried before turning. And I can say with complete candor
that I've never been as frustrated with any other wood. Tearouts and
catches are common, and the end products are really quite indistinguished
unless the grain is irregular. Simply not worth the effort and
frustration. Recently a neighbor cut down a black oak and was surprised
when I turned down his offer to take what I wanted.

Interesting that everyone hates it.
I have only done three pieces of oak (one red and two white), but they cut
easily with no tear out at all. Maybe I should quit while I am ahead.

"Toller" wrote in message
...

Interesting that everyone hates it.
I have only done three pieces of oak (one red and two white), but they cut
easily with no tear out at all. Maybe I should quit while I am ahead.



That's been my experience. I haven't done much in oak. I'm pretty new to
this and most of my actual attempts at making something has been redbud
simply because I had to cut one down so I had a free supply. But I have had
some scraps of oak around from some other projects and it seemed to work
quite nicely although I haven't done anything much. Just stuff like hair
sticks and the like. I haven't messed with end grain on any of those
attempts that I recall since my scraps aren't that big. I do a lot of
scroll saw work so a 3"x3" piece of wood is NOT scrap.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:01:45 GMT, "Toller" wrote:

Interesting that everyone hates it.
I have only done three pieces of oak (one red and two white), but they cut
easily with no tear out at all. Maybe I should quit while I am ahead.

I've done three oak pieces as well. One was fine, but it was just a
simple replacement chair leg turned from a dry piece of timber, but
the other two were a waste of my time.

*Cutting* the oak was no problem in the two bad cases- in the first
attempt, a turned a bowl from a burl cap that looked simply
wonderful... for about two weeks. After that, it slowly warped into a
wooden analog of the elephant man.

The second was from a peice of green oak that I began to turn a hollow
form from. Not only was it miserably boring to look at, grain-wise,
but it developed a huge crack about halfway through the hollowing
process.

Could be a personal failing on my part, but I just don't consider the
stuff worth turning. Come to think of it, I'm not a huge fan of using
it for flatwork either- unless I'm using quartersawn white oak with
nice ray flecks, and I can rarely afford that stuff!

The thing this thread points out is that some people are totally successful
with woods that others consider useless and unworkable. Don't let anyone
tell you to only use such and such wood OR finish OR lathe OR tool OR drying
protocol OR sales method,etc.

Experiment and you may find yourself doing the impossible!



"Toller" wrote in message
...


Interesting that everyone hates it.
I have only done three pieces of oak (one red and two white), but they cut
easily with no tear out at all. Maybe I should quit while I am ahead.

"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

Actually I've had pretty good luck with cottonwood. It is soft, but
makes very nice boxes and bowls. A sample is attached.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...e/DSC_0006.jpg

On Jun 27, 9:34 am, "TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote:
As a new turner I would avoid the oak, difficult to turn and not many
turners like it, and the cottonwood, it is very soft.

"Toller" wrote in message
...

"Maxprop" wrote in message
ink.net...

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..

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.

Amen to that. I had a goodly supply of white oak, some of it turned when
wet and the rest dried before turning. And I can say with complete
candor that I've never been as frustrated with any other wood. Tearouts
and catches are common, and the end products are really quite
indistinguished unless the grain is irregular. Simply not worth the
effort and frustration. Recently a neighbor cut down a black oak and was
surprised when I turned down his offer to take what I wanted.

Interesting that everyone hates it.
I have only done three pieces of oak (one red and two white), but they cut
easily with no tear out at all. Maybe I should quit while I am ahead.

A lot of my problems with oak undoubtedly deal with my relative
inexperience. I've been turing about two years and have a lot to learn
about the process. I keep my tools sharp in the extreme, so it must be my
technique. I've no delusions about that. And since the original poster
mentioned that he, too, is a neophyte, I thought my experiences might be
more appropriate to his situation than that of some of the more experienced
turners herein. I'm sure many contributors to this NG can turn oak with
nary a problem. However at this stage of my experience, I've pledged to
keep frustration at a minimum--life seems more pleasant that way. :-)

Max

"Maxprop" wrote in message
nk.net...
A lot of my problems with oak undoubtedly deal with my relative
inexperience. I've been turing about two years and have a lot to learn
about the process.

You grow in your turning the same way you grow elsewhere, through
challenges. Though I'm puzzled at the alleged difficulties with turning
oak - drying another matter - I will say it's less forgiving of poor
technique than other woods with uniform density. Now you've grown into the
hobby a bit, have another go.

On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 01:14:14 -0000, PaulD wrote:

Actually I've had pretty good luck with cottonwood. It is soft, but
makes very nice boxes and bowls. A sample is attached.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...e/DSC_0006.jpg

Looks like basswood- easy to turn, doesn't crack too bad, etc- but
it's just so plain that most folks don't bother with it.

On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:00:56 GMT, "Maxprop"
wrote:

A lot of my problems with oak undoubtedly deal with my relative
inexperience. I've been turing about two years and have a lot to learn
about the process. I keep my tools sharp in the extreme, so it must be my
technique. I've no delusions about that. And since the original poster
mentioned that he, too, is a neophyte, I thought my experiences might be
more appropriate to his situation than that of some of the more experienced
turners herein. I'm sure many contributors to this NG can turn oak with
nary a problem. However at this stage of my experience, I've pledged to
keep frustration at a minimum--life seems more pleasant that way. :-)

I think more of your problems with oak come from the large difference
between radial and tangental shrinkage and the fact that it does not
have interlocking grain, and splits easily- which is what makes it so
nice as firewood. My hat is off to the guys who can do it well- they
must have some really good voodoo dances, but for the rest of us
slackers, it's too much trouble, and doesn't have that much visual
punch when it's finished.

If you turn dry oak, it shouldn't ever be that much trouble- but most
of us turn wet wood (I think- I do, anyways) and that's where the
trouble and agonizing over drying methods comes in. My favorite
woods have interlocking grain- meaning, there is an obvious grain, and
then a sort of "subgrain" pattern when you look at it. Birch, Maple,
Elm, etc. all have this in common. It's not only more interesting to
look at, IMO, but it's better at resisting cracking. Some of them
warp a lot, but I usually expect a bit of that, and plan pieces so
that the warp is part of the design. With a bit of observation, it
becomes fairly obvious over time which parts are going to move, and in
which direction.

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

Paul, nice box. The wood is very bland though. It would look much nicer in
burl. ;-)

"PaulD" wrote in message
oups.com...
Actually I've had pretty good luck with cottonwood. It is soft, but
makes very nice boxes and bowls. A sample is attached.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...e/DSC_0006.jpg

On Jun 27, 9:34 am, "TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote:
As a new turner I would avoid the oak, difficult to turn and not many
turners like it, and the cottonwood, it is very soft.

"George" wrote in message
et...

"Maxprop" wrote in message
nk.net...
A lot of my problems with oak undoubtedly deal with my relative
inexperience. I've been turing about two years and have a lot to learn
about the process.

You grow in your turning the same way you grow elsewhere, through
challenges. Though I'm puzzled at the alleged difficulties with turning
oak - drying another matter - I will say it's less forgiving of poor
technique than other woods with uniform density. Now you've grown into
the hobby a bit, have another go.

More recently it's been a lesson in avoidance. My earlier attempts to turn
smaller oak--white or red--forms was fraught with tearouts for which I had
no explanation. My tools were sharp, I was approaching the wood very
cautiously and correctly (to the best of my knowledge at the time), and the
rotational speed was appropriate. Of course the tearouts seemed to occur
near the end point of the turning tasks, which amplified the frustration
factor. So I pretty much gave it up for easier-to-turn species. In all
honestly I don't miss oak at all. I turned a small bowl--candy dish--for a
friend who received it in a rather lackluster manner. After recovering from
my injured pride, I turned her one of rather colorful tulip wood, which she
received rather enthusiastically. Another nail in the oaken coffin.

Max