For the sake of simplicity and common understanding, I will refer to S. nigra<\/em> as Black Willow from here forward.<\/p>\n The heartwood of Black Willow is a reddish or grayish brown, sometimes with darker streaks. The sapwood is white to tan, and isn’t always clearly or sharply demarcated from heartwood.<\/p>\n Black Willow usually has an interlocked or irregular grain with a medium to fine uniform texture.<\/p>\n Black Willow is rated as non-durable to perishable in terms of rot resistance and Black Willow is also susceptible to insect attack.<\/p>\n With its low density and interlocked grain, Black Willow has very poor machining characteristics, frequently resulting in fuzzy surfaces or tearout. Willow also tends to develop numerous drying defects and can be difficult to season. Black Willow glues and finishes well. Black Willow is reported to respond moderately well to steam bending.<\/p>\n Black Willow is not reported to have any characteristic odor.<\/p>\n Black Willow isn’t a rare tree but it isn’t commonly harvested in the United States for timber purposes so it is difficult to source although when it is available it tends to be a relatively inexpensive wood.<\/p>\n In this blog, I almost always recommend several vendors with whom I have done considerable business and in whom I have great confidence. These vendors are: West Penn Hardwoods<\/a>, Bell Forest Products<\/a>, NC Wood<\/a>, WoodTurningz<\/a>, Amazon Exotic Hardwoods<\/a>, Griffin Exotic Wood<\/a>, Exotic Woods USA<\/a>, Got Wood?<\/a>, and Wood Turning Blanks 4U<\/a>.<\/p>\n At this time, none of my favored vendors are offering Black Willow.<\/p>\n Woodfinder<\/a> is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Black Willow this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings. I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer in person to hand pick pieces at a comfortable price.<\/p>\n A significant problem with using Woodfinder is that many vendors are listed for woods that, upon further investigation, they do not offer. I don’t know if perhaps once they did and they didn’t update their listings or if some vendors use a standardized list of woods that include most everything conceivable with the idea that once you land on their page you will find something you want to buy even if you didn’t know it beforehand. It happens to me all the time!<\/p>\n Black Willow is most commonly used in the making of baskets, as a utility wood, and for crates, furniture, carvings, and other small specialty wood items.<\/p>\n Black Willow is NOT listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices<\/a> nor is it listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.<\/a><\/p>\n To the best of my knowledge, the United States government does not place any restrictions on Black Willow.<\/p>\n I realize that inherent in working with wood is the killing of a part of the natural world that may be slow to return and if I become deeply concerned about this fact, I will have to find a new hobby. I hope that such a time does not come to pass or at least not any time soon. In part because I am concerned about legally and responsibly obtained wood, I am reluctant to buy from sellers outside of well-established and known vendors. I am highly unlikely, for example, to purchase any wood from auction sites, such as Ebay, because of uncertain sourcing and documentation, as well as the potential, even likelihood, of material being misidentified in order to achieve a higher selling price.<\/p>\n However, due to the commercial scarcity of some woods, resorting to auction sites such as Ebay or Etsy may be the only way to obtain some desirable domestic, or in some cases exotic imported, species that are not routinely commercially harvested. The potential risks of buying in these marketplaces have to be balanced against the desire to work with a specific species of wood. That is inherently an individual decision.<\/p>\n I also realize that many, if not most, wood workers do not have endangered species lists memorized, therefore I think it worthwhile and important to do even a small amount of research before purchasing any lumber, domestic as well as imported, to be certain of the potential impact you are having, even in a small way, on threatened or endangered populations. This information is easy to come by and takes only minutes to locate through any Internet search engine, including those you can access on your phone as you are standing in the lumber yard or store. Unfortunately, you simply cannot count on a vendor to tell you a product they are selling is endangered.<\/p>\n Aside from the standard health risks associated with any type of wood dust, there have been very few adverse health effects associated with the actual wood of willow (Salix genus), however, the bark and other parts of the tree have been reported as sensitizers. The most common reactions include skin and respiratory irritation.<\/p>\n It is important to remember that although many people may, or may not, be sensitive to any given wood, the only experience that truly counts is your own, so use reported side effects as guidance but not as a substitute for cautious and safe practices.<\/p>\n Appropriate protective equipment is therefore always recommended when working with this, or any other, wood, exotic or domestic, unless you have worked with the species before and are certain you are not sensitive to it.<\/p>\n Complete information about health hazards<\/a> associated with a wide variety of exotic hardwoods is available from The Wood Database<\/a>. Additional information about how to best use a dust collection system and personal protective equipment, such as respirators, can also be found through this excellent and comprehensive resource.<\/a><\/p>\n Fortunately, I experienced no significant difficulties while working with Black Willow.<\/p>\n I’d never worked with Willow of any type before and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It was obvious from the first steps that the Black Willow wood was very soft and as I would have predicted the Black Willow did not cut cleanly as is often the case with very soft woods. By using a Robert Sorby fingernail bowl gouge I was able to get rid of the worst of the tear out but the piece still required some careful sanding.<\/p>\n Willow 6.5 x 2<\/p><\/div>\n The color of the Black Willow was rather plain darkish brown but there is a slight degree of chatoyance and some interesting “eyes” vaguely reminiscent of bird’s eye figure in Maple.<\/p>\n I don’t think I would be in a big hurry to work with Black Willow again but I am glad I had the experience of working with something new.<\/p>\n All major cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool<\/a> system on my Robust American Beauty<\/a> lathe, although I do use Robert Sorby bowl gouges<\/a> for light final passes before sanding. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck<\/a>, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws<\/a>. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks<\/a>. Final finish is Odie’s Wood Wax.<\/a><\/p>\n 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!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Willow is a very soft wood that really isn’t well suited to turning since it cuts rough and fuzzy although that does sand out easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":3615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,128,136,137,129,138,139,130],"tags":[154,168,171,181,183,200,210,230,239,240,241],"yoast_head":"\nGeneral Characteristics:<\/h2>\n
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