What's your experience with dogwood?

[Bill Hensley]

I started a project with dogwood this afternoon and by the time I had it shaped and sanded it had developed 3 cracks. They were towards the middle of the body not at the exposed end.

This is a section from what I thought was a dead tree I cut earlier this fall.

I left it on the lathe and marked the end points with chalk to see where they are in the AM.

Seems that everything I've attempted with dogwood has eventually split on me. Too dense maybe? The wood not me, or maybe I got that wrong...

[Dennis Ford]

I have only turned a little of it but would like to get some more. It turns great and sometimes has real nice color. It is difficult to dry without cracks as it is dense and moves a lot. If you keep the pith out of the piece, turn it thin and dry it slowly; should have pretty good success.

[Fred Belknap]

I had one piece and it turned real nice. It did do quite a bit of warping but I didn't have any cracks. Beautiful wood, biggest problem is getting a large enough piece.

[Jake Helmboldt]

Bill, it can have wonderful color and is very hard, but I've also found that it cracks easily. I think it is the nature of the wood, much like the fruit trees that have a tendancy to crack. It can be especially pretty when spalted.