Cottonwood?

[Russell Neyman]

Anyone had much luck turning cottonwood? Someone dropped a good-sized tree and offered me some. Looks stringy.

[Reed Gray]

Well, I know Mike Mahoney likes it, bit I don't. It really is stringy, and never seems to cut clean no matter what you do to it. Also, it tends to smell sour, almost like some one barfed on it. I don't think that smell goes away, but that may depend on the finish. It is some times used around horse stalls because the horses won't chew on it.

robo hippy

[Steve Peterson]

I agree about the smell. It is somewhere between vomit and manure. Your hands will smell for days after cutting green wood.

Some pieces can have some good grain pattern, but there are plenty of other nicer woods out there.

Steve

[Dennis Ford]

Just my opinion but I would try to get a crotch section or two. The straight pieces are not worth the trouble unless you see evidence of great figure.

[allen thunem]

Cottonwood will eventually loose its aroma.
makes some nice bowls.
it does take some sanding tho.
give it a try what do you have to loose?
if nothing else it gives you a chance to work on tool control and technique.

[dan petroski]

I've done quite a few crotch wood bowls with nice patterns and yes it does require a lot of abrasive turning.(sanding) Dan

[Doug Herzberg]

Russell, cottonwood varies by region. In some areas, it is plain, white wood. In others, it has rich grain patterns and depth. Some have suggested that the colorful version of cottonwood is the result of minerals it picks up from the soil. What I have turned is from Colorado and has been beautiful wood. The crotch pieces are pretty, but also can be unstable. I have several big crotches in the barn, but I don't know if they are usable.

You will have to do a lot of sanding and maybe change your sanding technique. Shear cuts help a lot with the stringy wood and a few coats of polyurethane will stabilize the wood and allow you to sand away the tear out. It will also gum up your sandpaper.

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Here are some I posted over the years. Search the site and you'll see much nicer work by others. The last one was turned green and is perched on a piece of the tree it came from. If you have that rich color in the end grain, you have a good one, but I'd give it a try, regardless.

[Al Wasser]

I don't know how many different species of cottonwood there is, let alone many more horticultural varieties there are. I year or so I talked with a chain saw crver who referenced a hybrid cottonwood that always had excellent figure but could not give me a name. There is bound to be a lot of wood variation so some will find it good and some will throw it away. Locally, crotch wood seems to have good color likes Doug's good work above.