I am standing out of a window looking at the remains of a "windfall" apple
tree in my garden. Is the wood suitable / desirable as a woodturning
material? I have never used any before but have heard that fruit wood
sometimes gives a very nice appearance. I notice that there are large
amounts of sap and the wood looks very white, wet and soft.
Any ideas on how to use, preserve etc would be of interest.
G

Graham
Apple likes to split while drying. I would get it cut to length, the
center cut out and the ends sealed quickly. Other than that, the usual
drying techniques work well. See
http://roundthewoods.com/firewood.shtml for my methods.
--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS, Canada
http://www.roundthewoods.com

one of mt first trys was fresh cut apple.my face mask and shirt were very wet
when i finished. Live and learn. then i turned a peice about 4.5" dia. 6" long,
with a little work i got it to 1/8" thick and all the worm holes showed up,
it's a very nice affect. i put all the wet shaveings in and around it in a bag
to dry and had good luck. give it a try i think you will like it.

Graham,
The heartwood of apple has a very nice color, it is also fairly hard.
Overall a really nice turning wood. It does like to split and warp though.
Try turning a green very thin flattish bowl and watch it warp as it dries.
This can give some interesting shapes. Apple warps as much as any wood I've
turned.
Tony Manella
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners
http://www.lehighvalleywoodturners.org/

"Graham Nichols" wrote in message
...
I am standing out of a window looking at the remains of a "windfall" apple
tree in my garden. Is the wood suitable / desirable as a woodturning
material? I have never used any before but have heard that fruit wood
sometimes gives a very nice appearance. I notice that there are large
amounts of sap and the wood looks very white, wet and soft.
Any ideas on how to use, preserve etc would be of interest.
G

I have turned a lot of apple. My customers really like it. I have had good
success turning green. When rough turned and then Anchorsealed, I have had
higher losses than with other woods due to the extreme warpage that is
perhaps twice as much as maple or birch.

Try to leave the heartwood in the center for interest (orienting like a
natural edge bowl) for interest. Beware if there are any existing cracks in
it, however.

Graham,
Apple like most fruitwoods is a beautiful wood to turn. But you've
got to turn it green and then boil it for an hour or two to stabilize
the severe movement in the wood. Once stabilized and finished turned,
fruitwood bowls are really beautiful with the contrasting heartwood
and sapwood. If younjust seal the ends with Anchorseal and wait for
the blanks to dry like I did once, you will have a whole bunch of
presplit firewood and kindling to use or give away.
good luck
Roger Dunn

I like turning apple. When I turned my last bunch it was still a bit
green. Apple seems to warp in interesting ways. I have a few apple
bowls that are unique in shape. My wife loves them and they are
setting as center pieces on our dining room table. Save the shavings.
Someone will want them. They smell great. I gave my last bunch to a
guy that is smoking meat.