Is Alder good for turning?
 

Yesterday I noticed someone cutting down an Alder tree. They said I can
take any of it I wish. Since I won't be able to try it for a few weeks I
thought I'd ask if this would be any good for woodturning. Any advice?
Also, if anyone is near Derby, UK and wants some, mail me. There are
about 40 pieces 4" to 12" dia, up to 5ft long. I think there is also
some Poplar mixed in there.

As an aside, there is also a piece of Poplar 40" dia (yes, about 3.5
feet diamieter) about 10ft long which might be a bit heavy for most
cars? :-)

Steve

Hi Steve

Yes alder can be very nice to turn, even more so if you can get it to
spald a bit.
Then the 40" x 10' poplar, should not be a problem, unles you want to
turn it in one piece (:

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

Steve Bak wrote:
Yesterday I noticed someone cutting down an Alder tree. They said I can
take any of it I wish. Since I won't be able to try it for a few weeks I
thought I'd ask if this would be any good for woodturning. Any advice?
Also, if anyone is near Derby, UK and wants some, mail me. There are
about 40 pieces 4" to 12" dia, up to 5ft long. I think there is also
some Poplar mixed in there.

As an aside, there is also a piece of Poplar 40" dia (yes, about 3.5
feet diamieter) about 10ft long which might be a bit heavy for most
cars? :-)

Steve

Steve Bak wrote:
Yesterday I noticed someone cutting down an Alder tree. They said I can
take any of it I wish. Since I won't be able to try it for a few weeks I
thought I'd ask if this would be any good for woodturning. Any advice?
Also, if anyone is near Derby, UK and wants some, mail me. There are
about 40 pieces 4" to 12" dia, up to 5ft long. I think there is also
some Poplar mixed in there.

As an aside, there is also a piece of Poplar 40" dia (yes, about 3.5
feet diamieter) about 10ft long which might be a bit heavy for most
cars? :-)

Steve

Alder isn't great, but it's OK. It can have some nice figure, similar to cherry
at times, and some has really nice chatoyance, but the end grain tears out a lot
- it's pretty soft wood. It's about 75% of what I turn, as that's mostly what
grows around here. Sometimes spalts up nicely. Burns better than spruce or
hemlock which are the predominate woods here. If it's free it's worth taking
it, unless you have a ready supply of better woods...

....Kevin
--
Kevin & Theresa Miller
Juneau, Alaska
http://www.alaska.net/~atftb

"Kevin & Theresa Miller" skrev i melding
...
Steve Bak wrote:
Yesterday I noticed someone cutting down an Alder tree. They said I can
take any of it I wish. Since I won't be able to try it for a few weeks I
thought I'd ask if this would be any good for woodturning. Any advice?
Also, if anyone is near Derby, UK and wants some, mail me. There are
about 40 pieces 4" to 12" dia, up to 5ft long. I think there is also
some Poplar mixed in there.

As an aside, there is also a piece of Poplar 40" dia (yes, about 3.5
feet diamieter) about 10ft long which might be a bit heavy for most
cars? :-)

Steve

Alder isn't great, but it's OK. It can have some nice figure, similar to
cherry
at times, and some has really nice chatoyance, but the end grain tears out
a lot
- it's pretty soft wood. It's about 75% of what I turn, as that's mostly
what
grows around here. Sometimes spalts up nicely. Burns better than spruce
or
hemlock which are the predominate woods here. If it's free it's worth
taking
it, unless you have a ready supply of better woods...

...Kevin
--
Kevin & Theresa Miller
Juneau, Alaska
http://www.alaska.net/~atftb

I think Alder is ok to turn, I have turned a lot of Alder wood. But you need
sharp edge. It is very light in weight, so if you turn a bowl of Alder very
thin, it will be almost weightless.( excuse my english, I am a norwegian,
and not so good in English)
Ivar Tyrhaug, Norway

Please keep posting. It's nice to hear from people all over. This forum is
for woodturning information and not for English grammar, punctuation or
spelling.

Derek


"I think Alder is ok to turn, I have turned a lot of Alder wood. But you
need
sharp edge. It is very light in weight, so if you turn a bowl of Alder very
thin, it will be almost weightless.( excuse my english, I am a norwegian,
and not so good in English)
Ivar Tyrhaug, Norway"

I like to turn red alder. At first I did not know what specie it was as It
came from the firewood pile. It has red streaks which makes it look nice.
The other day the Crime Stopper organization were collecting objets to be
auctioned for the benefit of gathering money. I gave two 6 inches bowl one
made with alder and one made with maple.
The bowls were auctioned and the alder one sold for $25.00 and the maple for
$20.00.
Not a lot of money but people did appreciate the beauty of the red alder
wood over the sap maple. Now I am on the hunt for alder wood preferably red
and 8” to 12” in diameter if I can find that large of a diameter?



"Derek Hartzell" wrote in message
...
Please keep posting. It's nice to hear from people all over. This forum
is
for woodturning information and not for English grammar, punctuation or
spelling.

Derek


"I think Alder is ok to turn, I have turned a lot of Alder wood. But you
need
sharp edge. It is very light in weight, so if you turn a bowl of Alder
very
thin, it will be almost weightless.( excuse my english, I am a norwegian,
and not so good in English)
Ivar Tyrhaug, Norway"