Preferred wood to "prepare" (turn, dry, finish)

[Mike Willeson]

Hi all,

There are numerous discussions about how certain woods are difficult to turn, dry, and final turn without cracking. For example, fruit woods are typically mentioned as cracking easy. My first learning experiements are with a pear tree I got for free. I have had mixed success and learned quite a bit.

I will soon be looking for more free trees and I am curious what woods you find to be the most cooperative to take from a wet piece of wood to finished form.

I am not necessarily looking for the easy way, but trying to learn more about what woods people find favorable as I "learn" my way through the process.

Thanks,
Mike

[Prashun Patel]

I'm completely speaking out of turn here. But I just received some sections of a maple tree that are a pure joy to turn. I had sections of a bradford pear and a felled cherry that haven't been as forgiving. While the species may have something to do with my experience, the maple was the freshest/greenest. It feels like this has a lot to do with the ease of turning. On the upside, very green wood appears to be extremely forgiving to my novice hands. On the downside, it is easy to dig in a little deeper than desired.

From what I read, a lot has to do with the pith location as well.

I can't speak to the drying part yet...

[Reed Gray]

I have found most maple and walnut to be fairly easy to dry. Even the difficult woods can be tamed, but there is no one way to dry them all, and the ways will change depending on your local weather/humidity/geography/season. Dry too fast, and it will crack, dry too slow, and it will rot/mold/spault (which isn't always a bad thing.

robo hippy

[charlie knighton]

if only one wood to turn it would have to be mesquite, but i much perfer to rotate my turning woods

mesquite, oak , cherry, maple, english yew, are probably my favorites
cedar i have a lot of trouble with, and it sort of goes to the back of woodpile it is a great wood to see if well done, i just do not have the cedar touch

[Robert McGowen]

Mesquite for sure. You can cut down the tree, turn a platter, grill a steak with the shavings and serve it on the platter you just turned, all in the same day.

Mesquite will lose weight for several days after turning, but I have never had a piece crack or move after turning, sanding, and finishing it all in one sitting.

[David E Keller]

I think walnut has been the nicest for me to dry plus it's beautiful. Most of the burls have been fairly well behaved(maple burl, several Aussie burls, and redwood burl come to mind). Cherry and the other fruit woods have a greater tendency to crack in my hands, so I've tried to slow down the drying of those.

[Scott Hackler]

Maple, Box Elder and Elm seem to dry very well for me with little movement. Walnut seems to take a lot longer for me to dry but is pretty stable. Hackberry and Oak have ovaled pretty hard on me and I now turn them extra thick to plan for the movement.