What is the most difficult species of wood you've turned?

[Bill Wyko]

I have a small piece of Red Gum about 6" in diameter. This thing has broken off the chuck about 10 times. It either breaks the tenon or when I turned a recess in the other end the wood broke. This lil sucker is a fighter.:mad:

[Bonnie Campbell]

My worst HAD been leopard wood. But now I have to say it's a chunk of 8x8x2 brazilian cherry. I've busted two tenons and going to try for a recessed turning soon..... hoping THAT works!

[Raymond Overman]

Easily black palm. It's cocobolo nails driven into balsa wood. It's next to impossible not to have some tear out even with extremely sharp gouges and light cuts. Sanding it is tough too since the softer wood is reduced faster than the harder wood. :mad:

I've got a small piece I'll ship to someone for the cost of shipping if they'd like to try it or I'll trade Bonnie for her piece of Jatoba. I love that stuff.

[Rich Stewart]

I cut a palm tree down one time for a neighbor. I hit it one time with an axe and the axe went almost clean through to the other side. Like cutting a sponge. How would you turn that stuff?

I can't think of any wood that I have turned so far that I didn't like. I'm sure I'll find one someday though.

[Anchor Sarslow]

Easily Black Palm. The trick for me has been to not turn it too small.. anything with a diameter of less than 3/4 of an inch or sidewalls thinner than that.. always broke. Tear-out all along the way.. It did sand down and polish OK once I got to that point.. but again.. it disappears fast. and it does not really turn.. it mostly shreds.

[Jason Hallowell]

I haven't done much turning, so my experience is pretty limited.

My second attempt at turning was red gum lyptus, and it was next to impossible. I almost gave up on turning after that one. It was rock hard, and even though it was completely dry, it grew cracks and moved dramatically as the internal stresses were revieled.

I've worked with other varieties of lyptus that were relatively easy to work with, so it must be the local red gum we have that's so difficult. I picked up 6-7 logs of it at a local firewood place, and still have most of it. I cut some into pen blanks, and the rest might just sit until I'm experienced enough to turn something useful out of it.

The only other wood I've ever had problems working was palm. The combination of super soft balsa like wood with the rock hard slivers running through it makes things interesting.

[Mike Vickery]

What ever devil species of Eucalyptus this is
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=70968
No idea what species it is but you see them a lot in my area planted as wind breaks by dairy farms.

[Jude Kingery]

Bill, along with Raymond and Anchor, it's hands down; black palm. That, for me, was the most difficult thing to turn. It's rather like having a bunch of porcupine quills embedded in butter and trying to make a nice surface is nigh on to impossible. It looks neat, but I'll never mess with it again, ha! Jude

[Pete Jordan]

Crabapple,

It was endgrain and tough as nails!

[Tom Sherman]

Up to this point the toughest wood I have turned has been Orange Agate, tried to do a small bowl broke the foot off twice. I put it aside and have been thinking lately of attaching a glue block to it to try that, we'll see.

[Neal Addy]

Some "mystery wood" from Peru. Jim King identified it as a type of bloodwood.

It was evil incarnate.

I've still got a piece in my shop. I left it there so I could kick it every now and then in revenge. I'd burn it but it doesn't deserve that quick of an end. Malevolent little... :mad:

[Jim King]

I agree with the palm being horrible.

[Ben Gastfriend]

Palm! Ugh! I hate the stuff, but it looks really good...

[Jim King]

Tom:
I love turning Orange Agate.

[Tom Sherman]

Jim the two pieces I have are not that size but I was quite taken by the color and contrast in the wood. Unfortunately I have not found the right technique for holding them. I will try the glue block method and see what happens.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Black Palm or Black Locust. Black locust is like chucking up a piece of concrete and turning it.

[David Fried]

Fortunately, I have problems turning any kind of wood :D

I did remove some 200 year old Chestnut from our house and I tried to turn some. Hard as concrete and it tended to fall apart along the grain lines. I gave up.

[John W. Willis]

Locust followed closely by 100+ year old chestnut barn siding.

[George Guadiane]

Weeping Willow Burl:
SOFT
FURRY
STINKY

[Tim Gruss]

Weeping willow burl. I just got the first coat one one tonight. I sharpened the tools to shave with and the end grain swirls just pull out even with size, hardener, or the epoxy tonic. This is the fifth try,water spritzing seem to be what works the best. The other thing I noticed is changing the sandpaper often help keep the heat down, avoiding new splits from opening before your eyes.Tim.

[Mike A. Smith]

What is the most difficult species of wood you've turned?

Every dang one of them!:eek:

[Bill Wyko]

I think threads like this are great. Now I know what woods to steer clear of.:D

[Don McIvor]

Cottonwood, which like willow is soft, stringy, and stinky. I've yet to finish anything I've started in cottonwood. Someday I'll drop in at Curt Fuller's shop and make him tell me how he turns cottonwood so beautifully!

[Rasmus Petersen]

well not having turned much i would say the Zebra wood pen i did last was difficult. cut at 90 degrees you could hear it screaming I WILL SPLINTER ... it did but was able to save it... i then mucked it up in assembly and it was for the dumpster...

Black locust - done some of that... i like it al lot...

[John Hart]

I'd have to say Snakewood. Not because it is difficult to turn, but because it likes to split and splinter. Very difficult to get to the finish.

[robert hainstock]

Yhis stuff is extremely hard, and needs much patience. I have a block of exceptionaly dry, and very hard that I chuck up every now and then and give up on soon after. :(
Bob
ps,
just picked up a piec e of palm, thanks all for the waarning.

[Jim Underwood]

I had some trouble with kiln dried White Oak at one time.

But then I chucked up some Black Locust recently. Even soaking wet green it gave me fits... my bowl gouge was jumping and chattering all the way...

It'll make great tool handles.

[TYLER WOOD]

Cottonwood to me is a dream. It is soft, but when dry, it's not real difficult.

Locust is agreed upon. Kiln dried ash in the larger variety. I chunked up a piece 6"X6"X2". NOPE!!! Splintered, cracked, hard as nails, and not very pretty. It sits unfinished to this day. Oh by the way, that was on the POS lathe that was spinning way to fast, and wobbled badly. Maybe I'll try it again.:D

[Reed Gray]

I haven't met a wood yet that I couldn't learn to handle eventually, but then Palm isn't wood. Further evidence that the 40 grit gouge can be a necessity some times.
robo hippy

[Frank Kobilsek]

I'll Second Brazilian Cherry. I was making gavels in about 15 minutes from cherry/maple/walnut when a co-worker asked me to demo for his Boy Scout troop. I grabed a set of blanks, loaded the truck and went to the troop meeting. I put the blanks in the lathe and realized it was the one set of Brazilian cherry blanks I had prepared. The demo took an hour instead of 15 minutes, no-one was impressed except the kid I gave the poorly turned gavel too.

Dry Hickory or dry Osage Orange is not as enjoyable as most other domestic choice either.

Frank

[Brian Brown]

Bill,

I am not as experienced as most of the turners that have answered your question, but from the woods I have worked with, I certainly have to cast my vote for locust. A freak winter storm brought down a large locust in my Grandmothers yard. I took some of the wood the next day (read very green) and tried to turn a bowl. That stuff kicked my hind quarters all over the shop.:mad: I refused to give up (bad plan), and put a scarry sharp edge on my bowl gouge. As soon as the tool touched the wood, it caught so bad it broke the tool rest off the lathe. I got the message! Nasty stuff!!! Nice to look at, miserable to work with.

Brian

[Jeremy Freeman]

So far the "hardest" piece of wood that I have turned was a piece of Anigre. I made a game call out of a piece and had to sharpen my tools every 3-4 passes.

[Dennis Peacock]

Red Oak first and then some walnut that had been dry for about 50 years out of an old barn. Talk about turning some "concrete"!!!! :eek:

[Steve LaFara]

Boy, I wish that I would have seen this BEFORE I picked up that chunk of black pearl! You guys make it sound like I might as well be trying to turn a roll of paper towels. Not to mention that I'm very much a newbie at this turning stuff.:(

[Andy Hoyt]

Wood schmood.

Try turning a potato sometime! :D

[Dick Strauss]

Andy,
I did turn potato though I think I got it a little hot because I ended up with curly fries when I was done:D.

My least favorite is probably basswood. Basswood is stringy and smells like an outhouse full of urine has spilled in your shop if you turn it dry and it gets too hot! Next on the list is weeping willow (soft and stringy).

[Pat Keefe]

Tasmanian Blackwood - Bowl gouge would catch every time I tried for a little deeper cut, the off the chuck, break the tenon, bounce around the shed.

Coolibah Burl - Hard as . . .

Jarrah Burl - Red dust everywhere, fragments. No curlies with this :(

[Dean Thomas]

well not having turned much i would say the Zebra wood pen i did last was difficult. cut at 90 degrees you could hear it screaming I WILL SPLINTER
Yeah, buddy. I hear ya on that one! Had similar experience with some hickory cut on a bias for pens. The bottom 45º angle corner popped off at least 3 different blanks. When it works, the pens are stunning, but what a challenge to get the danged thing turned. I ended up putting a "cap" on the ends made from cocobolo. I determined that I had to save it. Kind of like Bonnie Campbell, that the wood was not going to win! The bias-cut hickory makes for a pen whose wood really moves in the light. One of those things that does not capture well in pix.

Probably where I had the most difficulties was with a couple of blocks of lacewood that just would not cut. The patterns were fairly large as opposed to some of the lacewood I've seen in this last month while handling all the pens we did for Freedom Pen Project. I finally got my four pieces to a size where I could use my 60-grit gouge to remove pits from the tearout to get to solid wood at the target diameter. It would not cut, it would not scrape, but it did sand nicely. Folks were pleased with the project in the end. That's what really counts. And I even got a few bucks out of it, too which was also nice.

[Jim Underwood]

I've turned a bit of Osage Orange that has been down a while. It turns pretty nice, although I can't get a skew to leave a nice finish on it.:confused:

I've turned some spalted Persimmon too. Although it was hard, it turned fairly nice.

[Gary Herrmann]

I blew up a bloodwood bowl. Next time, I'm not going to DNA it. Maybe I'll get less cracking if I let it dry out in its own time.

I probably make a mistake on everything I turn - figure its part of the learning process.

[Scott Lux]

Honeylocust. It's beautiful when done, but I still haven't gotten a good bowl out of it. A couple of very nice pens, but no bowls.

I'm curious about the other locust votes, are they for black locust or honeylocust. Both are ridiculously hard, but I'm curious which. I know some of you mentioned black.

[Jim Underwood]

I've turned a bit of both Honey Locust and Black Locust. I'd say the Black is hands down the winner in the gripe contest. It's some darn hard stuff even cut right off the tree.

Comparitively the Honey locust is nice to turn if you ask me. And I've turned that Honey Locust bone dry and soaking wet.

Of course, I've just learned how to put a really nice grind on my bowl gouge, and I'm fixin' to see how that Black Locust acts now....:cool:

[Jon Lanier]

Today I found that Tulip Wood is really Hard... I didn't realize it. But the results are great.

I think Paduak is difficult because it wants to chip out easily. But when you get it right. That is a really pretty piece of wood.

I hate working with Poplar in any medium... Worse smell in the world.

[Don Eddard]

Black palm also gets my vote. Cocobolo needles in balsa wood is the best description I've seen.

What ever devil species of Eucalyptus this is
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=70968
No idea what species it is but you see them a lot in my area planted as wind breaks by dairy farms.

From the look of the picture, I'd guess it's this.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/Syllabus2/factsheet.cfm?ID=746

I've seen some pieces turned from this wood and they look real similar to yours. I hear it's real hard when dry.

[Kaptan J.W. Meek]

I had some trouble with honey locust, it was dry and hard... Mequite was very hard and left a black pitch all over my lathe, tools and shirt. Box elder burl looked great, turned smooth, but BLEW UP! Red cedar was a mistake as well, sap was gooy and it split all over the place, but all of hose were like turning soft wet maple compared to black palm. I gave up on it.. just said no. That stuff was beyond my scope.. And I paid $40 bucks for a 6x6 blank!

[Keith Beck]

I'd have to say Snakewood. Not because it is difficult to turn, but because it likes to split and splinter. Very difficult to get to the finish.

I'm with John on this one. Even hairier than turning it is trying to drill it for pen blanks. It wants to crack almost like glass. Tough stuff. I think I lose at least one out of every three and it ain't cheap!

Keith

[Ron McKinley]

Please take a look at my new thread entitled "Black Palm?" I tried to post it here but couldn't get the picture to work. Thanks......Ron

[John Landis]

White pine. I live in a pine forest, so when I got my first lathe, I didn't want to practice on good hardwoods. Learned my first lesson real quick-like !

[John Abt]

I was given several pieces of White Oak burl a year ago. It had been outside and, when I turned it, it was both wet and bone dry in adjacent areas of the wood. It turned hot and I had to sharpen every couple of minutes.