What's your favorite wood species? I like sycamore.

[User74]

Here are two goblets and a salt grinder I turned from sycamore. 

[Cal]

Beautiful turnings Don

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

I've never turned it, but quarter sawn sycamore is one of my favorite woods...very hard to find around here, I guess there aren't a lot of sycamore trees to cut .

[HandyDan]

Maple and Cherry are plentiful here and turn nicely.

[kreisdorph]

My favorite wood to turn is dogwood. I can't say why exactly. Cherry is right up there, though.

[Gerald]

Cherry and close second Bradford Pear. But most any wood works.

[lew]

Nice turnings! I like the pepper grinder!

 

Recently got some sycamore smallish logs and turned some small bowls. It turned really nice. The pieces I had were very plain in color and grain and had no spalting.

 

We have lots of maple and oak around here. Fence row walnut is so plentiful that it is often used for firewood.

[Headhunter]

Everybody's favorite smoker wood - MESQUITE.

 

Amazing what scrap firewood can look like.

[kmealy]

11 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I've never turned it, but quarter sawn sycamore is one of my favorite woods...very hard to find around here, I guess there aren't a lot of sycamore trees to cut .

Down here, it's a very common tree in a valley with a creek.  They are very tall trees (for around here).

[kmealy]

9 hours ago, Gerald said:

Cherry and close second Bradford Pear. But most any wood works.

You can have all the wood in my big bradford pear if you come take it down

[kmealy]

11 hours ago, HandyDan said:

Maple and Cherry are plentiful here and turn nicely.

I don't do any turning, but I'd say 80% of what I do is maple, cherry, and/or walnut.  The other bit has some red and white oak, mostly.  Poplar as a secondary wood.

[Gerald]

2 hours ago, kmealy said:

You can have all the wood in my big bradford pear if you come take it down

I just got a trunk from neighbor that measured 23 inch diameter. Tree service put it in my drive and I had to use hand truck to lay it on side so I could rip it.

[RustyFN]

I like pecan and Bradford pear.

 

[keithlong]

I love to turn Osage orange, can't get enough of it and also not wood I love turning deer antler.

[Cal]

42 minutes ago, keithlong said:

I love to turn Osage orange, can't get enough of it and also not wood I love turning deer antler.

 

Antler can sure make an interesting project.  Can't really say I enjoyed turning it though...

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

It's interesting to see some votes for Bradford pear. Our last house had a 500' drive that was lined on one side with them as well as several scattered across the lawn. In the 5+ years we lived there I probably had 3 of the larger ones blown down with various storms. I gave them to my neighbor for firewood. If I had only known I could have kept some of the larger trunk pieces for turning. All i thought they were good for was making a stink in the spring.

[lew]

1 hour ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

It's interesting to see some votes for Bradford pear. Our last house had a 500' drive that was lined on one side with them as well as several scattered across the lawn. In the 5+ years we lived there I probably had 3 of the larger ones blown down with various storms. I gave them to my neighbor for firewood. If I had only known I could have kept some of the larger trunk pieces for turning. All i thought they were good for was making a stink in the spring.

Our municipality got suckered into planting them everywhere when they were all the rage. Most have been replaced after storm damage. I can't remember if I've turned any of it.

[HandyDan]

A large Katalpa  was cut down recently near me.  The tree was so big a crane was needed and the  street was closed off while they did it.  Didn't get a chance on a piece.

[kreisdorph]

On 4/10/2024 at 6:05 AM, keithlong said:

I love to turn Osage orange, can't get enough of it and also not wood I love turning deer antler.

 

I'm a fan, too. It turns pretty well considering it's nearly twice as hard as sugar maple.

[kreisdorph]

On 11/3/2024 at 7:55 AM, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

It's interesting to see some votes for Bradford pear. Our last house had a 500' drive that was lined on one side with them as well as several scattered across the lawn. In the 5+ years we lived there I probably had 3 of the larger ones blown down with various storms. I gave them to my neighbor for firewood. If I had only known I could have kept some of the larger trunk pieces for turning. All i thought they were good for was making a stink in the spring.

 

My wife brought me about 6' of Bradford pear she picked up from a guy who was cutting one down. I turned one bowl, but haven't touched the rest. My one experience with BP was meh. I should give it another chance.