Favorite Wood?

[Bill Mitchel]

What is everyone favorite wood to turn? Thought it might be fun to hear different answers from different areas. We could do both domestic and exotic - any suggestions welcome.
I'll start with the obvious - Free Wood
Domestic - Cherry with nice figuire
Exotic - Never turned
Bill

[patricia stein]

will turn most woods domistic,exotic,spalted not much i wont turn cherry,maple,poplar.

[Tony De Masi]

I'm with you on this one Bill. Free is can be very rewarding or just a blast to practice skills on, but if I have only one choice of a domestic wood I would take cherry any day.

Never turned any exotics so no comment on that.

Tony

[Terry Quiram]

Hard Maple is my favorite with Cherry a close second.

[Curt Fuller]

Burl wood doesn't have all the problems associated with endgrain tearout so it would have to be among my favorites, any variety. Other than that I like cocobolo and some of the related rosewoods. The oil in them provides a natural lubricant that makes them cut so clean that they look polished.

[charlie knighton]

my favorite wood to turn is a wood i have never turned before, i have only been turning a limited time so i find woods i have never turned very easily, ones that i try to hoard are mesquite and cherry

[Dennis Ford]

Maple would be high on my list (hard or soft maple turns very well).
Osage Orange is one of my favorites.
Hackberry can be very pretty when spalted.
I turn a lot of Pecan.
Bradford pear turns really nice.
Magnolia cuts very easily.
Mesquite is great when I can get some.

Whoops; you wanted just ONE favorite!
I guess my favorite would be whatever I am turning at any one time.

[Mark Hix]

Usually the one on the lathe is the current favorite. If I could just get them all for free.....

Different woods are favorites for different reasons:
Bois D'arc for the bright yellow shavings.
Thuya burl for the smell and the way it feels when the final cut is done.
Ambonya burl for the great patterns.
Desert Ironwood for the solid feel.
Maple for the consistency.

[Toney Robertson]

will turn most woods domistic,exotic,spalted not much i wont turn cherry,maple,poplar.

Interesting. Just curious but why won't you turn cherry, maple or poplar?

Toney

[Jeff Nicol]

Well that is a question that is a toughy! I really like the smell of nice wet red oak and how nice it cuts! I turn a lot of Sugar, red and silver maple so they are a lot of fun aslo. I think the silver maple turns best and sands out the easiest when wood is dry. I have also been roughing out some large aspen bowls and the bright white of the curls coming off a sharp bowl gouge are hard to beat! But if I am in the mood for just pure wonderful smell in the shop I turn some red cedar or red pine, tough to beat the great smell!

So I guess it is everything for me!!

Great question!

Jeff

[Jim Becker]

Spalted maple, cherry and any kind of burl is my favorite when it comes to turning. The second one is my favorite for flat work... (can I say that here?) :D

[Jamie Cowan]

I really like osage orange. Beautiful wood, turns great. One problem--cracking. Haven't figured out how to dry it really well yet. I think its dry, finish it, and a week or two later, I get a crack. Bloodwood is also good.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Cherry would be my first choice, then maple, then spalted birch. That pretty much covers the woods that I have turned so far. One of these days I'll try something different!

[Jim Underwood]

I really like the kind that grows on trees.... :D


Seriously though, I would fight you for some Peach. It turns well, smells really good, and looks wonderful. It's better than Cherry, and I like Cherry a lot. It's probably a favorite of mine. Definitely in the top ten. Cherry burl is another favorite. It turns absolutely a dream and looks like a million bucks.

Bradford Pear is as good as Maple for turning wood - I like both of them as long as I'm not looking for a grain that "Pops". I'd rate Dogwood right up there in the same category. Oooo! I'm going to have to try the Pear and Dogwood with chattering! I've got some spalted Dogwood though that is absolutely gorgeous as an insert and isn't boring at all because of the wild colors.

A wood that many people don't like that much is Black Locust. It's really hard and almost brittle, dulls tools easily because of it's silica content, but it makes really good handles and polishes up nice. For a lot of things like bobbins and other small spindle work, you just can't beat it. It's also a very good looking wood. This is probably a favorite these days. Another top ten wood.

A related wood is Honey Locust. It's one of those warm nice cutting woods (a little porous) that everyone just loves the look of and likes to touch. I'd rate it right up there with Mesquite for warmth and and a wood that is nice cutting and is nice to the touch.

Not too crazy about the Oaks, or Pecan or Hickory. I just don't like the way Pecan/Hickory looks, and the Oaks can be a little porous and fibrous to turn. I may have to get some Oak that is green and play with it, because all the stuff I've turned has been dry, and that may be coloring my judgement of it.

Plum! Gosh what a wonderful turning wood, and such spectacular colors! I've got to get that stuff out of the shed and make some small boxes and hollow forms. Definitely in the top ten favorites.

I love the smell of the "Red Cedar" which is actually a juniper, and I love the way it looks, but it makes me sneeze and it's a bugger to sand out because it's so soft. I made a cool looking apple out of a 4x4 piece once.

Sweet Gum! Now there's an undervalued wood. If you get a nice dark heart of one of those trees, and make a nice hollow form with the streaks of brown intermingled with the white sap wood, it's one of the prettiest woods you'll find.

Mimosa is a very interesting wood. It's a little like Mahogany, but probably closer to the way that cheap plywood looks. I can't remember the name of right now.

Magnolia is a nice smelling wood. It smells a little like Pine. It's very soft though, and probably prone to tearout.

Well. Maybe I was serious about liking the wood that grows on trees....:confused::D

[Bernie Weishapl]

Maple, Cherry, Walnut and Elm. Elm is rather plentiful here so lots of free Elm.

[Reed Gray]

My favorite is probably Pacific Madrone. Wonderful color, always in the pinkish range to purple, black, maroon, and browns as well. Most difficult wood to dry that I have run across because of extreme wood movement. Wonderful smooth even grain.

Mountain Mahogany is another, very hard (18 on the Janka scale, lignum is 20, bubinga is 12), lovely reddish brown color, and the only green wood that I have turned where I needed a dust mask.

Also any fruit wood, apple, cherry, pear, plum, haven't gotten any peach yet.

Dog wood is another favorite, wonderful grain, and colors can be great. Osage is great, and black locust, and honey locust. Walnut, both English and Black, butternut as well. Haven't done to many exotics, but have some lignum, pink ivory, and cocobolo waiting. Myrtle is nice as well. I have only had a few pieces of sugar maple, and loved it but we don't get much of it here. Silver maple is nice, but tends to be kind of stringy. A 30 year old tree here is 30 inches in diameter. Chinkapin (golden chesnut) is wonder for its smell. I am sure there are others, but I get lost some times. Too many to choose from, and so little time.

robo hippy

I don't like Cottenwood, too stinky, and palm, too stringy.

[Richard Madison]

Having turned a relatively few species (compared to others here), my favorite is the next new one (to me) until it proves itself otherwise.

[Bill Bolen]

Cherry, spalted maple and dry elm. The wet elm is pretty smelly...Bill...

[Jon Lanier]

I've been loving my Spalted Maple. But I also enjoy Cherry and Walnut. Although Walnut is hard to photograph at times. I think in person it has great character.

[steven carter]

Cherry, Walnut, Maple are my favorites, but also like hickory, sycamore, chestnut oak, mulberry, and osage orange (which happens to be every wood that I have turned so far). I have a lot of cherry that I would like to trade someone for some mesquite. Any takers?

[curtis rosche]

osage, cuts clean and consistent. or apple.

[Joe Melton]

You can't beat the smell of Olive in the morning!
Joe

[Duff Bement]

IMHO- hard maple is hard to beat

[Scott Lux]

I haven't turned many kinds of wood, but apple is my favorite.
It smells nice, turns well, and is pretty too. Honeylocust is my second favorite. It machines well, although it dulls the tools fast. And the smell is good, but I'm mildly allergic to the dust.

Lux

[Montgomery Scott]

I've worked with over sixty species of wood over the years. My favorite for turning hands down is African blackwood. I also like turning desert ironwood, cocobolo, amboyna burl, Brazilian kingwood, Australian blackwood, thuya burl and bocote.

[Dick Strauss]

Apple...it smells like apple cider as you turn and it cuts like no other wood I've turned. I wish it didn't move so much, otherwise it would be perfect!

[Judy Kingery]

I'd agree, first choice is free wood that is also good - Mesquite for this area is plentiful and a great, stable wood to turn; the color is pretty and I like pretty much everything about it.

Jude

[Kim Ford]

Myrtlewood and Cherry; Koa kinda fun also.

[David Pearson]

Someone gave me a few sycamore logs last month and they turned real nice. I like Cherry and Maple too. I got a 40' long 2' wide Walnut butt two weekends ago, so that's what I like now! I do not like turning Ash or Hickory.

[Gary Herrmann]

Are you asking about the actual turning process or the results?

Actual turning - wet fruitwoods: pear, cherry, plum etc. Catalpa smells like cotton candy when turned. Turning dry osage orange wasn't all that fun.

For looks, I have to admit to having a jones for quilted maple. I just love the figure. Also like cherry a whole lot.

Exotics - I've enjoyed turning african blackwood, amboyna burl, olive and bloodwood.

[Steve Knowlton]

Myrtlewood is one of my favorite. I get so much of it free that it is hard not to be a fav. Madrone is another fun wood. Burl is always good.

[patricia stein]

not saying that i wont turn cherry or maple or poplar was saying not to much wood i wont .cherry ,poplar ,and maple are my favorite too turn.

[Neal Addy]

African blackwood. Turns beautifully and really takes a polish.

[Dana Berenson]

On a table of 100 pens from 20 different types of wood, I will always sell out of every single Cocobolo pen.

For bowls, cherry is very rewarding.

[David Drickhamer]

Walnut, Maple, Cherry and anything else that will spin.