Wood for a Pendant

[Ken Frohnert]

I am pretty new to turning but a guy at my woodturning club turned small piece of "Lemonwood" (? I think) into a neat 2 1/2 inch pendant - he put it on a nice leather thong. I was really nice. I though that I could probably get some turning experience by turning a couple for my wife. So today I made a glue block and put a 1/2 dowel in it so I can hold it in my drill chuck - figure I can double side tape the pendant to the glue block. I will use the tailstock and a scrap piece to keep pressure against the pendant until I have it about finished - then I can pull the tailstock back and just rely on the tape.

Anyway, I guess I need about a 2.5"x2.5" piece of wood about 1/2" thick or so to start with. I am not really knowledgeable about exotic woods and not sure what would work nice; e.g. have some interesting color and grain. Anyone have any suggestions for wood types to try - I may be able to buy a small piece a woodcraft and get a few 2.5" x 2.5" x .5" piece out of it. Not sure what variety of wood though - any suggestions?

[David E Keller]

Lots of options for something like that depending on your tastes(or hers). Any of the rosewoods and most burls work well. Curly maple and boxelder burl are both excellent woods if you want to try your hand at dyeing a few. Olive, ebony, and even acrylics can be interesting. Pear works well if you want to add pyrography afterward. I would avoid buckeye and heavily spalted stuff unless its been stabilized, but just about everything else is fair game.

[Marty Eargle]

Olive is my personal favorite wood. But like Mr. Keller said, it depends a lot on taste. Woodcraft would probably have some small pieces of cocobolo, bacote, and other exotic woods to use without spending a ton on burl pieces and what not. If you're looking to surprise her, maybe show her some bowls and plates turned from certain woods and see what she likes...but you may be opening up a can of worms there.

Whenever I turn something like a pendant, I do it from cut offs and scraps from larger pieces that I've turned.

[Jim Burr]

Lots of options for something like that depending on your tastes(or hers). Any of the rosewoods and most burls work well. Curly maple and boxelder burl are both excellent woods if you want to try your hand at dyeing a few. Olive, ebony, and even acrylics can be interesting. Pear works well if you want to add pyrography afterward. I would avoid buckeye and heavily spalted stuff unless its been stabilized, but just about everything else is fair game.

Yup...what he said.

[Ken Frohnert]

I think I may be able to get some larger blanks marked as knife scales. A few of them are 2.5 x 6" by 1/2 or 9/16" which opens up a ton more options. Some of them are stabilized to.
I just cannot visualize from looking at a picture of a blank or even the real blank itself what the finished product will turn out to be like. Of course I cannot visualize what a sofa would look like in a certain fabric from just a 10"x10" sample. So I guess I should not be surprised.

[David E Keller]

Another thought... Why don't you check with Cory Norgart(creeker) at UpNorthBurls about his 'scrap pile'? I'll bet a lot of other retailers would also have cutoffs available. As Marty suggested, I use the extras for pendants and earrings. BTW, I think 1/4 or even 3/16 is thick enough for pendants, so you could resaw thicker scrap. I've probably got some stuff around here that you could use... Send me a PM if you need something.

[Tim Boger]

I am pretty new to turning but a guy at my woodturning club turned small piece of "Lemonwood" (? I think) into a neat 2 1/2 inch pendant - he put it on a nice leather thong. I was really nice. I though that I could probably get some turning experience by turning a couple for my wife. So today I made a glue block and put a 1/2 dowel in it so I can hold it in my drill chuck - figure I can double side tape the pendant to the glue block. I will use the tailstock and a scrap piece to keep pressure against the pendant until I have it about finished - then I can pull the tailstock back and just rely on the tape.

Anyway, I guess I need about a 2.5"x2.5" piece of wood about 1/2" thick or so to start with. I am not really knowledgeable about exotic woods and not sure what would work nice; e.g. have some interesting color and grain. Anyone have any suggestions for wood types to try - I may be able to buy a small piece a woodcraft and get a few 2.5" x 2.5" x .5" piece out of it. Not sure what variety of wood though - any suggestions?

Ken ... I have a large tub of Koa scraps that I've saved over the years, I'm sure I can find a few pieces for you to work with. PM me if your interested.