What a difference the wood makes!

[Steve Mathews]

I graduated from my practice wood (construction lumber scraps) to a dried maple turning blank and what a difference it made. It was a pure joy to work. I'll post a pic of my little keeper as soon as it's sanded and finished. Now that I'm over the fear of ruining good wood I plan to move onto some other pieces I've collected waiting for my experience to catch up.

[Mark Greenbaum]

Wait - the fun is just beginning. Try some fresh green wood from local sources if you can get it. The spaghetti strands are so much fun.

[Steve Mathews]

Sure would like to try turning green but the tree service companies contacted earlier haven't come through yet. It looks like a more proactive approach may be in order. Coincidentally, the book Turning Green Wood that I ordered some time ago also hasn't arrived yet. Maybe this is an omen of sort.

[Olaf Vogel]

the tree service companies contacted earlier haven't come through yet.

Just stay with it. Supply like this is sporadic, but as they say: "when it rains, it pours"

Getting a big ash tree this weekend, a couple thousand pounds will keep me busy for a while

[Steve Peterson]

I started turning using scraps of construction lumber and 1-2" diameter branches from yard trees. My goal was just to practice making beads and coves without catches.

Green yard branches are really easy to turn. They will probably crack because the pith is directly in the center.

The douglas fir chunks were difficult to turn without chipping. Maybe it is good practice. If you can make something out of them, then any other piece of wood should be easy to turn.

Steve

[Don Jarvie]

Poplar is a good wood to turn and reasonably priced to practice on. I get slabs of 12/4 around 2.50 a board foot