I have worked quite often with Hackberry in the past although this is the first time I have worked with it in kiln dried form so that it wasn’t heavily spalted as it usually is when air dried. It behaved almost like a different wood since it cut and sanded evenly since the density was consistent throughout the piece which is so often no the case with spalted specimens. As much as I don’t tend to care for spalted Hackberry, I enjoyed the kiln dried version and would seriously consider working with more kiln dried pieces in the future.
All major cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool system on my Robust American Beauty lathe, although I do use Robert Sorby bowl gouges for light final passes before sanding. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks. Final finish is Odie’s Wood Wax.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever your wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!