Anyone turn Honeysuckle?

[Bill Wilcox]

My neighbor this past weekend has pulled out some Honeysuckle from his wood line and has some real nice looking stumps. I was looking them over and they are nice and bulbous shaped and full of interesting roots coming out. I was wondering if anyone has any experience in turning this wood. I did a search and did find a little bit of information, but would like some more.
Thanks,
Bill

[Scott Lux]

Bush Honeysuckle, or vine? I've turned a cup, and a bunch of mushrooms out of bush honeysuckle. I can post a pic later. It turns great green, but splits really badly. (of course on the mushrooms that looks good). It's actually very pretty.

There are several varieties of Bush Honeysuckle, all are considered invasive nuisance species in most areas.

[steven carter]

I havn't turned any, but volunteered at an envorinmental center this weekend, and chopped a lot of it with a machette. It is trying to take over the forest floor.

Steve

[Bernie Weishapl]

I turned some honeysuckle vine. It turns nice green but split so badly it went to the firewood pile.

[Bill Wilcox]

It's a bush honeysuckle. It's about 4-6" in diameter. I just power washed it this afternoon to get all the dirt off.

[Scott Lux]

Here's the cup I turned and the mushrooms. The taller mushrooms are Bush Honeysuckle. (smaller are pear IIRC) The tallest is over 8". There is a crack running from the pith to one edge for the length of the thing on both the honeysuckle.

Sorry for the crappy pic, in a rush this evening.

[Bill Wilcox]

Nice color on the wood. I wonder what could be done to prevent the checking if turning green? I was thinking trying the dishwashing liquid to soak the piece after turning green. Since there is a ton of this stuff around where I live I guess I will do some experimenting.
Thanks again for the pictures.
Bill

[Scott Lux]

Bill, the good news is that no matter how much you turn, there's still too much growing. I've microwaved it with some success. The mushrooms I let crack for the look. The cup I had dried as a branch in the garage for 5 or 6 months.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Yes I've turned Honeysuckle wood from the bush type, Lonicera tatarica, I do have a couple very small pieces that did not split on me, turned very thin and a coat of CA on it.
Anything else has split on me, I tried a few different ways of getting it to not split, and the only way that I got close was with boiling the wood, anything else split badly.

Right now I have a bunch of Honeysuckle wood and a root burl at my house, burl is all washed and cleaned up and I will give it another try, I like turning the wood, smells nice and turns very nicely and the wood looks good also.
I'll add a couple of pictures

These 4 I tried CA on the left one, boiled the second one and paper bagged the right one, forget what I did with the little one.
The CA covered one did stay good for a while then split wide open, the boiled one did get a few splits but not too bad, the right one did split pretty quick but didn't split as bad as the CA'd one.

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These two are from 4 pieces that I turned thin and CA'd, they did not split, they are the size of a dime in Diameter

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These are the main stems and were split for years already while growing.

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This is the root burl, I hope I will be able to keep it alive.

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[Bill Wilcox]

Leo, thanks for the information. I am going to give this stuff a try. I like the color and even if it checks I'm going to try the dishwashing liquid process a try.
As Scott says, "theres always tons of it out there."
Bill W

[Rich Riddle]

Folks I am cutting down acres of Amur honeysuckle, the tree/shrub, not the vine. If any of you would like some of this to turn, sen a message. It's up to 8" in diameter. If you would like pictures, I can load them tomorrow to give you examples of it.

[robert baccus]

Wow--that's a new one. Lou I'm sure you tried wax as well. I don't think that stuff grows here--what color is the bloom. Rich, if you are wanting to prune and stimulate the stuff chop it. A gallon of round-up will kill it if you spray before you chop. It needs the leaves to absorb it. Be sure to read thelabel.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

This is an old (4 years) thread Robert, and I wonder how these turners made out with their Honeysuckle, it should be long enough to tell about the results, pictures would even be better :).

The Tatarian Honeysuckle is also an invasive shrub, just like the Amur and Morrow Honeysuckle.

Amur, Morrow and Tatarian are different but similar species, they come from Siberia and Korea , Japan and China, the flower colour of the ones growing in my area have the flower colors ranging from white through dark pink, even variable on the same bush.

I cut a bunch up for pen blanks, last time I checked there were very few that looked perfect, I'm not into pen turning so they would be give aways.

[Steve Trauthwein]

I have turned a lot of pens from the bush honey suckle. I find some interesting grain then cut it into a little larger than 3/4 pen blanks and then soak it in DNA for two or three days.
Have pretty good success after that. Have not tried bigger pieces.

Regards, Steve