Woodturning Materials
So, what can you use as a wood turning material? The better question is, what CAN’T you use! The wood lathe can certainly be used to create objects from most any wood you can imagine, and probably a fair amount of woods you have never heard of much less imagined. But the possibilities don’t stop there. I also use acrylic plastics, deer antler, water buffalo horn, off-cuts from Corian counter tops, corncobs (no, really, I swear), wood composites, and even custom made pens with items encased in special polymers that allow you to do decoupage-like items. One can even rescue the shavings from today’s bowls to make tomorrow’s pens through a process named by its creator, Phoenix Pens. Really, the only limitation is your imagination.
I did have some trouble with the Afromosia being a bit brittle and splintery when cut very thin on the edges of the platters. I like edges that are …
I have worked with Canarywood before in small sizes so this was my first time with large pieces. WOW! It worked beautifully and I have a new favorite wood. …
The easiest by far was the blank with the random mix of what I am mostly certain were domestic woods. The most difficult were the three featuring Purpleheart which …
The surviving blank measures about 8.5" x 2". It would have been 3" high but it too had a check and side wall failure, but one small enough that …
Cherry remains one of my all time favorite domestic woods in terms of its ease to work with on the lathe. I would add Hard Maple, Almond, Myrtle, Mesquite, …
The blank was originally 13" wide but the distortions of drying robbed it of the missing 0.5". Black Walnut is a good turning wood but it doesn't compare to …
Unlike the pen blank sold to me as Makore, these platter blanks demonstrate the moderate reported hardness of Makore which places it in the range of oak. The Makore …