Anyone have experience with rhododendron?

[Dave Smith]

A neighbor dropped off some large pieces of rhododendron this afternoon. The pieces are upwards of 8" in diameter. Unfortunately he cut the plant last week and just thought of me today. A considerable amount of wood was lost due to cracking on the exposed ends. I am processing what I can save. There are a couple of bowls soaking this evening that were turned from a large crotch. He also left a piece of wood that he said was from a shrub that has white leaves. That really narrows it down. It is twisted like a wisteria or grape vine. At about 4" in diameter and a foot long I hope to get something out of it.

The bowls turned so far are 7" in diameter and were taken to 1/2" and 3/8" in thickness. It won't take too long to find out if that was a bad idea. I reckon that by the weekend the bowls will be potato chips, split kindling, or about ready to turn. The wood is light in color but shows some indication of grain variation. Can I expect the color to darken when it is dry and exposed to light?

Dave Smith

Collector of odd wood in Longview, WA.

[Ted Okolichany]

Dave,

Rhodos grow all over the mountains where I live in western NC...Also mountain laurel. Both are about the same wood but have different blooms.

I have turned both but only as candle holders since I have not really had any large pieces, What I did turn, all were very stable, no cracking.

Good luck,

Ted

[Bud Duffy]

Dave my brother lives in Wenattchee , 2 years agao he pulled out a couple of rhododendrons and gave them to me i live in idaho and they did not take to the soil change and died so i pulled them and cut up the rootballs and the smallish trunks.Made a couple of pens out of them so far,the rest is sitting under the bench waiting for some inspiration. The pens did not crack and turned a nice deep brown with BLO and CA. The other pieces havnt cracked yet either and it has been about 8 months so i assume they arn't going to.

[Adam Howard]

I don't know much about the wood, but don't use it for any eating utensil or toys.

Rhododendron is poisonous if ingested.

[Jim Becker]

A number of folks in my local AAW chapter turn mushrooms from Rhododentron...it's everywhere around here. Some of the older shrubs are practically trees and have trunks that are quite large. (The one outside my office window, for example, has about a 6" trunk) It seems to turn nicely. Don't overlook the root balls/burls, either. I've turned a little of that as well as some wonderful Mountain Laurel root burl and it is fantastic! Example below. (poor pic, unfortunately)

[Dave Smith]

Did I miss the picture?

[Jim Becker]

Did I miss the picture?

Nope...I failed to notice that I need to compress it a little more to get it to upload. My bad...