Anyone turned cottonwood?

[Chris Rae]

I have a chance to get a few pieces of cottonwood. It's been down and cut up for several months. Has anyone turned it, is it worth turning? Thanks!

[Scott Hackler]

I turned some green cottonwood and it was pretty soft and I had a little difficulty with the tenon. I was always having to adjust the bowl onto the chuck.

On another note, cottonwood gets extremely hard when it dries.

[David Walser]

Chris,

I haven't turned cottonwood myself, but I have seen a number of nice bowls made from it. When I was taking a turning class at CSUSA a few years ago, Mike Mahoney came by to cut up a huge cottonwood trunk that someone had dropped off. Cottonwoods are one of the few trees that are plentiful in Utah and he said he used it for a lot of his bowls.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have turned green cottonwood. I use a 4" tenon and didn't have much problem. Dried and re-turned. Came out pretty well. Chris if it is free give it a go. I figure if the wood is free I will try it at least once.

[Reed Gray]

I only tried cottenwood once. It does tend to be a bit stringy, even with the sharpest of tools, but the thing I didn't like was the smell. Kind of like some one threw up. The tree holds water forever, and that is why it is so sour smelling. The smell did not totally go away when dry. Did read in Woodshop News that it is used in horse stalls because it tastes bad, and the horses won't chew on it.
robo hippy

[Ken Glass]

Chris,
I do the same as Bernie. I use large 4" jaws for my SN2 and when round, I turn at high speed. It is soft and turns well. I had good success with sanding and finishing it as well.

[Burt Alcantara]

I've turned a lot of cottonwood, native to Boise. I've turned it wet, seasoned and dry. I've found it easy to turn at all stages. It takes a finish well. Most of the turnings I've done were end grain so I had problems getting them to stick to my HoldFast. Eventually, I found if I swirled a few coats of poly on the inside, I could finish turning them using vacuum.

Cottonwood is a low density wood so your turnings will be light weight. If you turn thinly, they can feel like paper.

[Jeff Nicol]

Chris, I have a ton of it right now, my Dad is building a new house and he had to take down two trees. The crotch wood is very pretty with curls and feathers, it will get some light and dark lines in it after it sits a while so that adds to the beauty. I am kind of partial to the smell unlike Reed, maybe the part of the country it comes from makes a difference! I turned a limb about 6" last week and left the center in as it is a winged type bowl using a 12" lengnth of wood. So anyway the pith is dark and the heartwood a little lighter and then there is an orange ring around the heartwood. Then the sapwood is pretty white. But it turns real nice when wet and you can get big long ribbon curls to fly off it! Have fun and since it is free spin away!

Jeff

[Chris Rae]

Thanks everyone, I'll pick it up.

[Allen Neighbors]

You poor thing!! Cottonwood... yucch!! Get all of it you can, and send all of it to me, and I'll do my part to protect you from the harm it will do to your turning joy. That stuff all needs to be in my wood pile. :D

[Chris Rae]

I picked up the two largest pieces tonight. One has a nice crotch in it. I'm anxious to give it a try.:) Thanks again for the input!

[Steve Mawson]

Let us see how it turns out. They make everything out of Cottonwood in Nebraska. Also know as Colonial Maple around here. It does look a little like maple when dry. Of course the smell will give it away that it is not maple.

[Terry Quiram]

My advice to anyone asking about turning a specific wood is this. Never pass up wood offered. The experience you gain from turning different species is invaluable. The more experience you have the better turner you become.

[Wyatt Holm]

I have turned a lot of cottonwood, it is probably the most common tree where I live. I would say only to use figured pieces< burls, fiddleback etc. One thing I have noticed with it is you either get really nice pieces or really boring pieces. I would recommend not using straight grain bland pieces because it is so abrasive. I will show you a picture of a cottonwood nested bowl set I made in a while.