Favorite woods to turn?

[Steve Mathews]

I haven't turned a lot of different wood but my favorites so far in no particular order are ....

Olive - I love the smell of this wood, especially turned wet.

Cedar - I haven't actually turned this yet but off the bandsaw it's another pleasant smeller.

Mesquite - Cuts nice and the contrasting colors look nice. Remains to be seen how well my wet turned bowls dry.

Maple - I've only tried some dry blanks but the precise cuts obtained showed made me a better turner than I am.

Walnut - Another dry wood that I tried that gave good results piths and all.

Douglas Fir or construction grade lumber - This is what I started with in spindle training and a few beginning bowls. It was a great wood to get started on and practically the only thing I could immediately find. I still use it.

Well, these are ALL of the woods I've tried so far and truth to be told all are my favorites. What are your favorites and why?

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Bass, soft like butter, but has some tearout when scraping.

black walnut Turns well, can't get the fine detail I would like.

Teak soft and easy to turn, a bit hard to sand. it is so full of oil that that any heat causes the oil to gum up the sand paper. Easy to finish. Just hold a rag to the wood to create heat and the natural oil in the wood comes out and sort of burnishes leaving a finish.

American Elm. soft a little more porous that black walnut, not quite as dark

black cherry easy to turn easy to sand easy to finish, nice tight grained wood

sycamore easy to turn, a little more porous than black cherry, easy to sand and finish

mulberry hard, open pores, somewhat easy to turn. Nice yellowish appearance, not as brittle as black locust, which it is often mistaken for

sassafras turns fair easy, smells slightly like cloves. The grain is prone to separate within the tree due to bending with the wind. it makes it difficult to turn smoothly and sand smoothly.

yellow poplar turns like butter, slightly tannish green in heartwood, sometimes with mineral streaks of purple. easy to sand what I turn the most.

red oak, open pores, hard to turn with out tearout between the rings. lots of sanding. but very pretty.

red maple a very soft maple. close grains, turns easy, sands fair. grows like weeds around here.

sugar maple very hard. scorches easily, when being sanded, in an area with curl, the thin wood next to the ring can flake out leaving a pit. aggravating wood to turn

eastern red cedar. hard to get a sizable piece without knots. turns and sands nicely. The knots are a pain to deal with.

mahogany (maybe Cuban) Decades ago, an acquaintance owned a casket company and he milled his own lumber for the caskets. Somewhere in the bowels of his large pole building warehouse, he uncovered some very old rough cut mahogany lumber that the prior owner had been saving. . He sent it through the planing mill and cut some pieces for a table he was making. He gave me a half dozen 5/4 cut offs, about 12 in x 12 in. pieces. I had them stacked in the shop, when it burned. I found a few pieces charred around the edges, but still solid in the middle. So the stuff was at least 60 yrs old when I got it. Anyway, it turns easily. There really isn't much that can be turned from a few sticks of the stuff. I did turn a small circular picture frame with it, about 6 inches in diameter..

apple had a few pieces. it had strange convoluted dark brown areas through the wood. Almost like spaulting. a nice tight grained wood.

[robert baccus]

Green, heartwood Camphor--the very best--many colors and it will drive mice and roaches crazy. Then green pear, sweet gum, green holly and any green tropical.

[Sid Matheny]

Free wood!!! :D

[John K Jordan]

What are your favorites and why?

My favorites are sometimes different for making different things. Some favorites for turning larger things are not my pick for small, detailed things.
At last count I had about 125 species in my little stash. I've turned at least something out of most of them but some not enough form an opinion.
I generally like hard wood with fine grain since it usually turns cleanly and takes detail well. Hard woods let you know when tools need sharpened.

The list is some I can remember without thinking too hard.

Note: almost everything I turn is dry.

DOMESTIC favorites
Dogwood. Quite hard, strong, fine grained, and I have a good supply drying since 2006.
Holly. Fine grain, favorite is pure white, carves well.
Cherry. Soft, so easy to turn, I like the color, smells great
Highly figured Maple, for the chatoyance.
Sugar/hard/rock Maple - hard, fine grained
Ambrosia maple, if it is contrasty.
Figured and burled walnut - I like the look. Plain walnut, not so much.
American Chestnut. Looks coarse but works and finishes nicely. Extinct, my stash is heavily guarded.
Eastern Red Cedar, especially if it's red marbled with white. Easy to turn, looks great.
Basswood, when mixing turning and chip carving.
Persimmon, the domestic ebony. Very hard and cuts so smoothly.
Honey Locust, nice and hard, cuts cleanly, I like the color and figure.
Anything spalted with high contrast, crisp zone lines, not punky

EXOTIC favorites
Ebony. Whether jet black, streaked with brown, and especially Black&White Ebony. No finish needed, polishes well.
African Blackwood, same as Ebony. Both take fine detail well
Most of the rosewoods:
- Cocobolo, so smooth to cut and carve
- Tulipwood, beautiful color and figure, wonderful to turn
- Kingwood, love the color and streaked figure, also wonderful to turn
- Brazilian Rosewood - LOVE the color and figure, cuts so cleanly
Olivewood - one of the best to turn and use, so easy to work, smells great
Goncolo Alves - heavy, cuts cleanly, very easy to smooth and sand
Lignum Vitae - incredibly hard, tricky to turn, hard to sand, unique color
Gidgee - very hard, turns beautifully, wish I had more
Purpleheart - my special and dwindling stash which starts out purple and stays purple
Pink Flame from Peru - hard and smooth, incredible color, impossible to find more
Genuine Mahogany - looks great, easy to turn, easy to sand
Sapele - similar to mahogany, a reasonable substitute for the real stuff
Bubinga - like the color, hard, cuts cleanly
Leopard wood - incredible ray fleck, nice warm color
Bloodwood - great color, hard and smooth

I could also list some of my least favorites. I try to give them away to unsuspecting visitors.

JKJ

[Peter Blair]

LOl!! I agree with Syd!!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I turned all kinds of wood, domestic and introduced, mostly Sid’s kind ;).

I’m not much for having exotic wood cut with all the problems associated with that, so I can turn some pens or spinning tops etc. that will be trashed in a couple years time, wile they can be turned from domestic woods as well.

I especially like using the wood from trees that already are cut for reasons like new house development, street widening or trimming by road crews, or dangerous and diseased trees.

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I have a list here from my photo album, where I go to find certain species of trees I turned, but the list would be much longer it I divided species like Maple into the different ones or the Oak and Elm and a few more.

I can’t say that I have a favorite wood per se, as often the wood of a species will turn real nice from one tree while the next one is difficult, the differences we find when turning wood from all kinds of trees is what makes it a fun hobby for me.

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Have fun and take care :D

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Indeed, my favorite is Sid's kind of wood!
Aside from anything free, koa would be tops. Beautiful wood no matter what you do with it. Milo (Pacific Rosewood) is next, because of the color contrast between sap and heart wood. Third would be Norfolk Island Pine. Fun to turn and you can get it translucent.

[daryl moses]

I've yet to purchase the first piece of wood for turning. I'm lucky that I live on 60 acres which is mostly wooded. I have only cut down a couple of trees for turning the rest have fallen naturally. That said my favorites are Sycamore, Black Walnut, Maple, Dog Wood, Box Elder [a member of the Maple family] and Sweet Gum.

[Stan Calow]

anybody turn redbud? I am eyeing a tree that might need trimming.
My favorite is mahogany. The first time I turned some, old kiln-dried mahogany, I was getting those long flying streamers the whole time. Fun.
But for looks, olivewood, koa and curly maple make the most interesting turnings.

[John K Jordan]

anybody turn redbud? I am eyeing a tree that might need trimming.
My favorite is mahogany. The first time I turned some, old kiln-dried mahogany, I was getting those long flying streamers the whole time. Fun.
But for looks, olivewood, koa and curly maple make the most interesting turnings.

I turned a piece for the first time yesterday, a small piece for a handle on a handbell ornament. It was fairly soft, turned well, and has a beautiful figure. I finished with "danish" oil. I saw a bowl from redbud and it was spectacular.

JKJ

[robert baccus]

Redbud turns great--a darkish yellow much like Bo-Darc, hard, ring porous but almost fine grained and slowly fades to gold rather than brown like Bo-Darc.

[Reed Gray]

I have turned a few pieces of redbud. It was kind of green tinted, a bit soft and stringy, but nice color. My favorite wood to turn is Pacific Madrone. Cuts like butter, warps insanely.... Wonderful reddish color.

robo hippy

[Peter Blair]

I agree Reed, but here in BC we call it Arbutus it is wonderful to turn and I too love the way it moves, but I think local Japanese Purple Plum is the wood I most enjoy turning.

[Don McClure]

A great discussion of the various woods...Here in piedmont area South Carolina I turn mostly local domestic wood that I find already down for various reasons. I don't turn much of the imported exotic types.
I see a lot of cherry, sycamore, poplar, pecan, various oaks, walnut and Bradford pear. There is also magnolia and dogwood. My ideal wood is free wood...

[Dennis Ford]

This is a fun thread to read. I mostly turn local woods and will add one that is not mentioned above. Crepe Myrtle, appears to be impossible to dry whole log sections but when quartered and end sealed, it drys into great blanks for finials, tops etc. Hard and fine grained, it takes detail well.
Another nice wood that I did not see mentioned is Russian Olive, not local to me but turns well and often has interesting character.

[Ken Glass]

I enjoy turning most Burled woods, both hardwood and soft. My favorite is Black Cherry Burl as shown. It never disappoints. I have an unlimited supply of it in the Ozarks.....

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Yes Ken, it’s another one that I forgot to add to my list, there are a few more, but yes a nice wood to turn, I liked the looks of it and it did turn well, it was from a local tree that was cut up and sat for a few years, turned just 2 or 3 pieces out of it.

This one found a place in BC and is liked a lot, we have another similar one here in our place.
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[robert baccus]

Like Dennis, I like this thread. My love of wood started by boat work and gunstocking in my misspent youth & led me to a career in forest management and turning. I also turn 95% local woods but love tropicals for desert. Many of our locals are transplanted foreign species and many are "lost tropicals" which have all the characteristics and looks of tropicals. These evolved in the tropics and survived the many ice ages to survive and thrive here. Catalpa, Mulberry, Bo-Darc, Black and honey locusts, and many trees in Florida jump to mind. "Favorite species" can refere to the appearances after finishing or the working characteristics, durability and finishing advantages as well.

[John K Jordan]

Like Dennis, I like this thread. My love of wood started by boat work and gunstocking in my misspent youth & led me to a career in forest management and turning. I also turn 95% local woods but love tropicals for desert. ...

Robert, have you tried turning Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)? I think I mentioned earlier that it's a type of Ebony. I like your comment about tropicals for dessert. (You did mean dessert rather than desert, right?)

I cut up persimmon when a tree comes down or has to be taken down for some reason. It is so different in color and figure from tree to tree - some is almost white. I still have quite a bit like this from a tree I took down in 2006.

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If I had to stick with turning just a few local woods I think I'd pick Dogwood and Persimmon, with Holly and Cherry right behind. If you ever get up this way, stop in and visit and I'll give you some pieces from the farm to try.

JKJ

[robert baccus]

John, I strongly agree with your choices of native woods- I would also add S. Magnolia, Eastern hophorn beam (ironwood), Black hearted Sweetgum heart and mineral stained Yellow Poplar. I do love to turn Persimmon especially if one can find some black streaked heartwood. I used to sell big persimmons to buyers as white ebony. Dogwood and Persimmon were once sold at very high prices by locals in the south at every city square on certain days --for textile spindle shuttles--worn well and smooth. Love to come but Lymes is winning fast. Old Forester

[David Larry Smith]

I didn't see red willow in all the good turning woods----my Dad used red willow in the early sixties out in Colorado---I don't know how he found the trees but always got them free and would turn some nice candlesticks for the farmers that gave them to him---he turned hundreds of candle holders and I never seen any crack----I've turned oaks, elms, maples, cheery, walnut, hackberry, Russian olive, and apricot, but red willow was the best----Dave