Author Topic: what's the oddest timber you've turned  (Read 14281 times)

Offline Les Symonds

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #15 on: July 19, 2016, 01:54:51 PM »
you mean elderberry (sambucus nigra) i take it? not box elder (acer negundo)?

.... i'd like to get a half log to make a mini bowl from, got any???
I mean elder, which I believe is a Sambucus.

It's still standing so I've no idea whether or not the wood will yield small bowls. Will see when I cut it.

Les
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Offline seventhdevil

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #16 on: July 19, 2016, 03:16:20 PM »
yes sambucus it is, elder/elderberry. i refer to it as elderberry as to not confuse it in my head with the box elder.

whatever is cut down i'd be interested in a length you cut. just 2-3' would be enough.

when you thinking of cutting it?

if you can wait till the sap is down and there should be less problem with splitting.

Offline seventhdevil

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #17 on: July 19, 2016, 03:18:56 PM »
got my hands on some large ivy recently ("hedera helix" off the top of my head) and it feels quite tough. got nice medullary rays too.

Offline Les Symonds

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2016, 03:32:21 PM »
....if you can wait till the sap is down and there should be less problem with splitting.
...fully aware of that, but the farmer isn't and he wants it out of the asap....
... ("hedera helix" off the top of my head) ...
Strange....in North Wales it tends to grow on trees.

Les
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Offline seventhdevil

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2016, 03:57:17 PM »
grow on trees it does but it's not usually 7-8" diameter. 45 years old too.

Offline Bryan Milham

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #20 on: July 20, 2016, 07:15:46 PM »
I've just been offered some tamarisk wood, branch type stuff 2" - 3" thick.

Anybody any thoughts on this stuff.
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Offline burywoodturners

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #21 on: July 20, 2016, 08:16:23 PM »
I tried some fig once, from a friends garden in Spain. It looked like elderberry and was as soft with a similar pith in the middle, it was white with no figure at all.

Elderberry is not hard get, it grows like a weed here.
Ron

Offline seventhdevil

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #22 on: July 20, 2016, 10:03:44 PM »
I've just been offered some tamarisk wood, branch type stuff 2" - 3" thick.

Anybody any thoughts on this stuff.


someone has finally come up with a wood i've never heard of.

well done bryan.

where did it come from?

Offline Bryan Milham

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #23 on: July 20, 2016, 10:20:02 PM »
A friends got a tree/big shrub of it in his garden. This is some trimmings.

I must say the wood in the photo he sent me looks fairly uninspiring.
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Offline Paul Hannaby

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #24 on: July 20, 2016, 11:45:52 PM »
What about Keruing? I've got a lump of that in my workshop.

Offline seventhdevil

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #25 on: July 21, 2016, 11:57:14 AM »
that's in the "dipterocarpaceae" family along with balau and meranti. not everyone's turned it but it's a fairly common timber in the world of wood, it's been used for lorry beds for god knows how long and is often used in pedestrian bridge construction. fairly boring looking grain to most people.


what else you got in the workshop?

Offline rick_dobney

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #26 on: July 21, 2016, 12:43:03 PM »
I've turned the remnants from a failed lemon tree that was barely a metre tall, I managed to get a pen and one or two other trinkets from it. The wood was nice to turn, close grained and similar to Holly in texture.

Continuing the fruit theme I was brought some Apricot by a friend who has a property in southern France, sadly the wood was bug ridden and full of shakes, so much so it was beyond safely working. The wood itself is a lovely dark orange colour so hopefully I'll get a better piece to have a go at following a future trip.

I've a couple of pieces of driftwood which I picked up on a Suffolk beach, one piece I suspect is elm but could quite easily be wrong. The wood is riddled with shipworm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipworms but I couldn't resist picking it up. I'm sure it'll be incorporated into a piece some day....just not something that needs to be watertight!!

I've some bog yew from Lincolnshire which turns and polishes up nicely, it's hard to believe it's 3000+ years old. My folks have also just returned from a holiday in Donegal, rather than a mug with a shamrock leaf on it they're brought me three pieces of bog fir, two root stumps and a log section again 3000+ years old apparently....If I get anything worthwhile from them I'll post on the forum.

All good fun and a break from the norm :)

Cheers
Rick


Offline seventhdevil

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #27 on: July 21, 2016, 02:27:06 PM »
bog timber is one of the few things i've not really turned. pity really as it polishes up fantastically.

the only bit i had went on to a laminated bowl.


i've got a log of apricot about 7-8" wide but not got round to doing anything with it yet. just another interesting timber in the prunus family...


i must get some lemon timber one day.

Offline hughie

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #28 on: July 31, 2016, 12:29:26 PM »
Probably for me it would be Queen Ebony from the Solomon Islands . I was fortunate to obtain a couple of good pieces as part of a favour I did for someone a while back.

  http://youturn.tv/queen-ebony/

Offline seventhdevil

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Re: what's the oddest timber you've turned
« Reply #29 on: August 01, 2016, 12:12:38 AM »
oooohhhhh, you lucky little......

i'd love to have some of that, any offcuts left? i'd love to get some for the wood database.

i've been turning some garapa today that i got from a gate manufacturer. talk about yellow, more richly coloured than piqua amarello in mo opinion.

http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/garapa/

also got some movingui from the same place. lovely stuff that.

http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/movingui/