AWGB Woodturning Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: seventhdevil on June 16, 2016, 08:22:47 PM
-
just a curious question to see if anyone has turned some rare or unusual timbers so don't be shy, lets hear what you've been able to get your hands on over the years.
lets see pictures if you have them.
the one i've only ever had a single bit of was called candle wood (Pterocelastrus tricuspidatus).
i need to double check the species name but i think that was it. a lovely dark red and rock hard. i should have a pic somewhere if i can dig it out.
-
I turned some beefwood not so long back. Here's a photo.
I also have some other odd woods you don't see too much these days, such as redwood lace burr, cuban mahogany, bloodwood and chac te coke.
-
I have turned a piece of golden madrone recently, which comes from south east Asia and is a subspecies of laurel
here is a box i have made with it recently with an inner thuya burr lid
(http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv262/a-cornucopia/a-cornucopia051/D94FDF1F-2426-42F7-9ADF-C1301D529CE1_zps9wvfvjhf.jpg) (http://s690.photobucket.com/user/a-cornucopia/media/a-cornucopia051/D94FDF1F-2426-42F7-9ADF-C1301D529CE1_zps9wvfvjhf.jpg.html)
-
that's a nice looking timber. that would be (Nothaphoebe spp) that usually come from indonesia.
do you have any offcuts that i could end to the wood database?
-
yes you are correct on the Latin, sorry no off cuts
-
no one turned anymore unusual timbers???
-
I don't have any pictures but I like to turn garden shrubs, Buddleia, Lilac, some of the Sumacs, Smoke bush is especially good as it's bright yellow, Mahonia, also a yellow colour, if you've enough left after the soft outer layer, Burberris, has a great yellow/green swirling pattern through it.
I'll have a go at any small bush or ornamental tree.
-
I've turned some wood from the stump of a tree dredged up from the sea when tidal defense work was being carried out on Cardigan Bay, near Aberystwyth. I've still got a fair lump of it, which I've been drying out slowly....might get around to making pens and other small items out of it. It's clearly a softwood of some description, a fact confirmed by a visitor to my shop who was an environmental archaeologist who had studied the ancient (and now, offshore) forests of cardigan Bay.
Les
...oh, and I've also turned some Thuya Burr that I was given, for free....that's got to be odd!
-
Haven't turned it yet but got some rose, as in garden variety not rosewood.
Pete
-
Haven't turned it yet but got some rose, as in garden variety not rosewood.
Pete
YEAH...BUT WHAT WILL MO SAY WHEN YOU CUT DOWN HER FAVOURITE HYBRID T?
Les
-
Oops?
Pete
-
Oops?
Pete
Methinks that she will say a lot more than 'Oops'!
-
was given a piece of rotten Ceanothus(California Lilac) and told,bet you can`t make anything out of that,so split it in two and made two bowls out of it.
-
I've just acquired two elder trees (yep, elder, not alder). They stand about 20ft high and are multi-stemmed, with main trunks about 6" diameter....it's all still standing and is about 20metres from my front door.
Les
-
you mean elderberry (sambucus nigra) i take it? not box elder (acer negundo)?
both are unusual.
i've only had a small lump myself ans was not big enough to turn. i got a sample from it tor the wood database though.
if there is a large lump spare les i'd like to get a half log to make a mini bowl from, got any???
-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
....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
-
grow on trees it does but it's not usually 7-8" diameter. 45 years old too.
-
I've just been offered some tamarisk wood, branch type stuff 2" - 3" thick.
Anybody any thoughts on this stuff.
-
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
-
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?
-
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.
-
What about Keruing? I've got a lump of that in my workshop.
-
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?
-
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 (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
-
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.
-
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/
-
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/
-
This stuff took a bit of beating in the 'whacky timbers' stakes...
(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a238/lessymonds/1607/DSCN5772_zpsfyqkzkfy.jpg) (http://s12.photobucket.com/user/lessymonds/media/1607/DSCN5772_zpsfyqkzkfy.jpg.html)
Cupressus Macrocarpa, or Monteray Cypress to give it its common name. Grown in a country house near me, this little dish is 14" wide and was turned from wet. I allowed it several weeks out of doors, in the rain, to work off some of the gooey, sticky sap, then turned it as thin as I dared. It was soft and spongy, and it split right through, along a bark-line, so was glued back together with polyurethane gap-filling adhesive, which in turn was scratched back and overfilled with a dark-brown filler, which has blended in really well.
When it dried, it developed a daft shape, one end lifting up, the other dropping....but it'll sell.
It's drinking BLO like crazy, which is increasing the contrast between wood and bark, which is adding to its appeal. I'll scratch away at it with tweezers, picking off a few raised fibres here and there, but otherwise it's just about ready to go.
Les
-
Totally different to all the macrocarpa I have turned. Soft yes but solid and easy to turn. Looking at yours Les I wonder if it was diseased in some way. Most of mine has been from healthy trees cut down because they got too big and were a hazard.
pete
-
Totally different to all the macrocarpa I have turned. Soft yes but solid and easy to turn. Looking at yours Les I wonder if it was diseased in some way. Most of mine has been from healthy trees cut down because they got too big and were a hazard.
pete
This was an outside slice off the top of a burr....I have the rest of the burr, which just fits in my wheel-barrow, and that appears to be more normal timber.
Les
-
a very unusual growth indeed, you did well with it though les.
i've just had a small macrocarpa milled but it's fairly normal grain. smells great though.
-
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.
.
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/movingui/
Will have to scratch around and see what I have. Just found some Manoa from NZ? [spelling is questionable ] carbon dated to 3000+ years old havent turned it as yet and to be honest it looks a little dull.
How are off for obscure Australian hardwoods ie Inland Rosewood, Orange Box wood I have a few more, not really sure what I have.
-
I was once given a fairly thick piece of green wisteria, the layer between the sap and heart wood was purple! I turned a mushroom from it and let it dry, the purple ring shrunk more than the rest of it and left me with an interesting shape. Not much good for anything else.
I have a few bits of keruing which was given to me when friends disposed of the left over wood from Dad's shed after he died. No knots feature or interest except for the colour. I used it to re make the slats on a friends BBQ, never did get the sausage though.
I have fitted lengths on lorry bucks in the past and took the old bits home for the fire, the oil in it burnt well, and the heat drove the water out through the woo to the other end, it burnt one end and steamed the other!
Ron
-
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.
.
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/movingui/
Will have to scratch around and see what I have. Just found some Manoa from NZ? [spelling is questionable ] carbon dated to 3000+ years old havent turned it as yet and to be honest it looks a little dull.
How are off for obscure Australian hardwoods ie Inland Rosewood, Orange Box wood I have a few more, not really sure what I have.
i can ask eric at the wood database but i'm willing to bet he's love a contact from down unde hughie.
reckon i'd also love some stuff as long as postage doesn't kill the idea.
-
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.
.
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/movingui/
I guess it depends on the size you want and the volume/weight etc. We could always do a corresponding cost return post etc
Will have to scratch around and see what I have. Just found some Manoa from NZ? [spelling is questionable ] carbon dated to 3000+ years old havent turned it as yet and to be honest it looks a little dull.
How are off for obscure Australian hardwoods ie Inland Rosewood, Orange Box wood I have a few more, not really sure what I have.
i can ask eric at the wood database but i'm willing to bet he's love a contact from down unde hughie.
reckon i'd also love some stuff as long as postage doesn't kill the idea.
-
I guess it depends on the size you want and the volume/weight etc. We could always do a corresponding cost return post etc
pm sent.
just got my hands on some "ceiba", "cumaru" and some nice looking sumach
-
i'll be turning quite a bit of makore this week, not an unusual timber for me but you don't see too much about.
-
just turned a bit of dark african mahogany which is really nice stuff.
it's not your normal african mahogany which is pink in colour and usually comprises of Khaya ivorensis Khaya nyasica and khaya anotheca. they all weigh 35-40lbs ft3 and are light red to pink with a boring grain.
what i have found is either khaya senegalensis or khaya grandifoliola which is 45-50lbft3 and dark reddy brown in colour with lovely wavy grain with streaks of light and dark in it.
looks bloody gorgeous...
i'll try to get a picture.
-
finally got round to turning a bit of japanese nutmeg, (torreya nucifera) which is a softwood and is bright yellow and apparently exceedingly rare...
i haven't finished the bowl yet but i'll have to get some pictures of it when i have.
also got my hands on some mgurure (combretum schumannii) along with some afzelia.
-
Every tried gorse? Horrible to turn and probably the most abrasive I've tried - tools needed sharpening several times for just a single pen. If you can find a straight enough piece the grain is fantastic and has some great colours in it
This photo doesn't really capture the colour
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/4/3936/14989198734_863a0f31c4.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/oQxyyW)Gorse pen (https://flic.kr/p/oQxyyW) by duncanhoyle (https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanh/), on Flickr
We managed to get some pieces about 20cm diameter but they all ended up splitting even when turned thin.