My first Banksia Pod....

[Michael Costa]

Do I need to turn away all that fuzzy stuff? If so, I'll have nothing left but a pen sized turning.

[John K Jordan]

Do I need to turn away all that fuzzy stuff? If so, I'll have nothing left but a pen sized turning.

A google search will show lots of things like videos and instruction like this: http://www.ddgnevada.com/wood/otheritems/banksiavase/banksiavase.html

[Jim Outman]

Are you talking about tearout? A fuzzy patch in the endgrain that seems to get worse no matter what you do? I'm new to wood turning but I have been working to deal with it. What I've found is very sharp tools very lightly used to clean it up. I start out aggressive to get the bowl roughly shaped, then go for finer tools sharpened to the max.

Experiment with it and have fun.

[John K Jordan]

A banksia pod is not actually wood but a big seed pod.

But you are on the right track about endgraid tearout on wood - sharp is the first line of defense with assistance by very light cuts. Sometimes application of thinned sanding sealer or even water works miracles. I follow the light cuts with negative rake scrapers then hand scrapers. It's an awfully stubborn tearout that can survive all that!

JKJ



Are you talking about tearout? A fuzzy patch in the endgrain that seems to get worse no matter what you do? I'm new to wood turning but I have been working to deal with it. What I've found is very sharp tools very lightly used to clean it up. I start out aggressive to get the bowl roughly shaped, then go for finer tools sharpened to the max.

Experiment with it and have fun.

[Jim Outman]

Googled Banksia pod. Learned something new.

[Jason Matisheck]

American Woodturner had an article about banksia pods last year. You can search the AAW site for it.

[Michael Mills]

If you are talking about the red fuzz it is normally turned away. About the same texture as velvet in a jewelry box. I usually have about 1.5 -2 diameter after it is turned away but it can vary with the pod shape as well as your starting diameter.
I suppose some can be left and with finish look like weird bark but I haven't ever saw that. I don't know what size pod you started with and most sellers give a size range and maybe medium, large, extra large; the larger the pod the higher the $$$.

The red show up about 1/2 way down in the pics in John K's link.
As a tip, run thin CA around the outside of the "eyes" when you get the red velvet turned away and have cleaned the remaining seeds out. This will seal any small cracks and stop chip-out between the eye and the body.

Saw a demo by David Dawteyr once and he turns some amazing pods.
http://www.daviddatwyler.com/banksia-gallery