Black Acacia anyone?

[Jeffrey J Smith]

Just returned to Seattle from Thanksgiving trip to Santa Cruz / Monterey Bay Area of CA with a good sized chunk of Black Acacia a furniture maker friend sent me home with. He's got the rest of the tree sitting behind his shop. Saw some pieces he's built with it and it looks stunning milled as lumber.
The picture shows a single round that started at 36" diameter x 40" in length. I cut it into two slabs 36" x 36" and saved the outside slabs at roughly 20" x 24" x 6" or so, along with a few other smaller pieces stuffed into the back of our SUV.
I'm not familiar with turning acacia - it's pretty wet - been down about 4 or 5 weeks at most. Does it move a lot? Split? It's very heavy - like locust, but better color with lots of variation.
Any of you California turners familiar with turning it? I understand that it's a relative of Koa - does it turn about the same?
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[Ron Rutter]

I have turned a bit of it. Turns nice. When it is real dry it is very hard. The stuff I have has a greenish tinge to it. It is also known as black locust I believe. Strictly a decorative tree up here, but does grow large. Ron.

[Bruce Pratt]

Black acacia, Acacia melanoxylon, is not the same as black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia, although they are both members of the pea family, Fabaceae. As noted by OP, Koa is also a member of this family.

It should also be noted that black locust wood will fluoresce a bright yellow-green under black (UV) light. I have not seen black acacia listed as a fluorescent species of wood, so this might also be a way to distinguish black locust from black acacia when you only have the wood itself.

[Jim Colombo]

I'm not sure about "Black Acacia" but the Acacia I turned here in Arizona was very porous. I could hardly hold it in my vacuum chuck. The air would just whistle through it. Other than that, it was great to turn and had beautiful lines.

[John Beaver]

Beautiful wood usually. Does tend to crack quite easily. Very hard once dry.

Enjoy.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Never turned any before but the stuff sitting in your SUV sure has some great color to it! Looking forward to seeing what you turn out of it!