Would this be worth the effort?

[Peter Blair]

I have a couple of pieces of Cherry that are hollow, have holes etc. and wonder if it would be worthwhile to try to turn them.
Here are a few photo's. I just can't seem to get my head around what they would look like if turned either as a NE or a bowl.
I understand that some Cherry often is hollow and wonder if any of you have turned anything like this.
Opps forgot photos.
221457221458221459

[Scott Hackler]

Pete, I personally would pass on this one. Life's too short to turn bad wood. Having a hollow center means that you would need to either turn a shallow side grain, NE bowl (or two) or fill one end with something to establish a bottom for an end grain HF. Not worth the time it would take, IMO.

[Dick Wilson]

Peter, I have no idea what your turning skills are. I could certainly see a very few turners do a multi-axis hollow form of some type (ie: Lyle Jamison as an example) but they have years of experience and I myself certainly would not attempt it. I think I cut the limbs off flush and mount the log so the log is perpendicular to the lathe and see what happens. Again this is an advanced turning - minimum. I look forward to reading what others come up with.

[Reed Gray]

You could turn some 'art' pieces out of it, but like Scott said, I would pass on it. Higher risk, and way more work than solid wood.

robo hippy

[Dennis Ford]

I would probably pass also but that would depend on how many other things I had going at the time. Turning this would be more work than turning something solid and it would have a higher risk of becoming smoke when you burned the remaining pieces due to a failure. If you want to push the limits of what is possible, this is a good choice of material.

[thomas prusak]

cut a pc off and throw it on the lathe and see what comes of it. Unless of course you are very limited on time or are turning for food!

[Doug Herzberg]

I have a piece like this. On mine, the surface of the hollow has a nice NE (no bark, of course), so I'm considering splitting the log and doing some kind of inside out NE. Is that what you're talking about?

Is the wood in good shape otherwise, or is the hollow caused by rot?

[David DeCristoforo]

I dunno.... looks to me like you just saved a lot of work hollowing it out since a lot of it already is! Never know about pieces like this. I would be inclined to figure a way to mount it up and see what it looked like after it was rough turned a bit. Might find something in there. Or send it to Dr Keller. He loves wood with holes...

[Ken Glass]

I am usually up for most challenges, and can visualize forms form blanks well, but I can't see this one materializing into anything I would want to tackle, IMHO.

[Prashun Patel]

I'm sure you can make something nice out of it.
It's a question of how much time and how much wood you have.

If you're relatively new, then I suggest you seal it up and hold on to it for a year. Then see how you feel about it. I fall in and out of love with a lot of stuff I find.

[Peter Blair]

Hey all. Thanks for the ideas and thoughts. I'm an experienced turner but of course not in the category of some of those mentioned.
I really enjoy challenges in all aspects of my life especially wood turning.
This tree was totally hollow but otherwise it is solid. I am wondering if it will crack as only branches have any pith.

[Primvs Aebvtivs]

I'm with Dick Wilson on this one. Picture 3, if the base is solid, clamp it in a chuck, turn a tenon, and re-mount it. The branches can be sawn off flush, or (like I do), turned to see if there's anything worth developing into flanges... Good luck , hope to see something / anything come out of it!

[Steve Vaughan]

Great possibilities there! One of my first bowls was an oak burl that had a large running nearly to the bottom. I think you can find something nice in there!