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.
Small Bubinga Bowl My most recent project was turning a small bowl, or dish, from a nice 6”x6”x3” block of Bubinga wood that I had purchased at some time …
Because of the high silica and other mineral content, Rhodesian teak is difficult to saw. These mineral and gum contaminants also tend to severely blunt and gum saw …
The blank presents some obvious challenges for the turner. The differing textures, porosities, and hardness of the woods used means that the character of the blank is constantly …
Once the hole was drilled I started hollowing. I can hear a distinctive whine and vibration when turning a blank, especially when working near the edge, when the …
I have talked about Ambrosia Maple at some length in another post, not published as of October 27, but coming soon, so I won’t go on about the wood …
Wenge Dish Wenge is a very hard, very dense, and very colorful streaked hardwood from Africa. It is not often found in sizes adequate for bowl turning, and when …
Spalted Hackberry Bowl I recently made a good sized bowl with a local wood, hackberry. While hackberry isn’t a particularly interesting wood, the spalting process gave it character that …