Where's the Orange tree?

[George Conklin]

Just curious. I've seen pear and apple, but no orange. They seem to be plentiful. Is there a reason that none is turned?

[Steve Clardy]

Hmmm. Good question.
All them orange groves in California-------------:confused:

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Yeah............and the southern strain in Florida!

[Dick Parr]

I have wondered the same thing:confused: Good question :eek:

[Stephen Hibbs]

I turned a mystery wood that smelled like citrus when I turned it, but it just wasn't ver interesting. Actually, as a bowl blank its strong orbotal rings would be neat, but not as an engrain piece like I did. I suspect it was lemon though, bacause that's more like what it smelled like when I made it. The smell went away immediately though.

[Curt Fuller]

I've never seen orange but have seen grapefruit turned. Is it a similar tree to orange? Grapefruit is a light wood with gray/tan streaks.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Funny you should mention orange. I cut a branch off our navel orange tree a last weekend to make room for a new arbor. I saved the bigger section of it - it's about 2 1/2" to 3" in diameter, so it should be a good size to play with on my little lathe. I'll post pics when I spin some of it up.

- Vaughn

[Tom Morton]

Orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime, tangerine are all great turning woods - green. When they dry they loose the lemon yellow color and comparatively are ugly to my eyes when they go grey - likely due to spalting - the gray is not uniform and the leyylow gos away. All are a very close grain hardwood. They all exhibit a citris smell when turned. The shavings will retain a bit of the citris odor. Tangerine is a beautiful lemon orange color. The yellow color is retained on my pieces for 2 years now. Excelleny wood for hollow forms. My personal favorite is grapefruit. If you turn citris take care when sanding - don;t let the wood get too hot as the wood will develop hairline spider web like cracks and it takes very little heat for this to happen.
Try it you will like it.
Orange is a favored wood for smoking in central Florida. Marvelous flavor when mixed with hickory or pecan.