Whats your favourite...

[Stigmorgan]

So, I know I've only 5minutes experience and I've only turned a couple different woods, fresh cut/green cherry, 2yr old seasoned cherry, Iroko, silver birch and sycamore, my favourite is easily the seasoned cherry because the colour and grain pattern is stunning.

What's your favourite wood to turn on the lathe and why?

 

[Sachakins]

Free wood or F.O.G.

 

[Adam Pinson]

Olive, turns beautifully and the mystical scent........

 

[Chris152]

I find it's much more about getting the right bit of wood (figure etc) than species.

 

[treeturner123]

Yew to turn

Burr Elm to look at when turned (well by others!)

 

[Doug B]

Laburnum is a particular favourite especially how deep chocolate colour it goes over time, other than that any highly figure or rippled native timber.

 

[Richard_C]

Anything British. I know people make some very nice things from exotic hardwoods, but at the level I am at there are plenty of home grown choices.

I like elm for sculptural pieces for no reason other than it was the carving wood of choice for Henry Moore and Barbera Hepworth. Nice regular grain which forms part of the overall look.

I found Lime reasonably easy to turn but potentially uninteresting, good to develop a few skills.

 

[Nelly111s]

Olive, turns beautifully and the mystical scent........

I’d second that and add that it finishes beautifully too.

 

[SVB]

Masur birch. cuts very well, takes fine details amd looks amazing.

 

[J-G]

Masur birch. cuts very well, takes fine details amd looks amazing.

... but it's not cheap! - I bought a small piece last December, close to £2k per Cubic Foot - Beautiful though.

 

[Tanglefoot20]

My favourite is YEW.... followed by hawthorn... if it stays in one piece and doesn’t split

 

[scooby]

I agree with you...I mean yew Such a nice timber.
I also have to mention purple heart..I utterly despise doing flat work with that stuff..its like hand planing concrete but when its on the lathe, its pretty nice.

 

[gog64]

I like them all really! Individual pieces might be difficult, but that’s part of the fun. One of my all time favourites is walnut because it looks fantastic IMO and turns like butter even when dry. Apple also looks fantastic and is easy to turn, but difficult to find much of a good size. Beech is also nice for bowls, but a little bland to look at. I’m still working through a 4 inch thick plank I bought cheap at auction, it had some rot at one end and so nobody else wanted it. I cut the rot off and the majority is sound with large spalted, chocolate coloured area running through it. I’ve made some very nice rice bowls with that. One of my best ever auction bargains was a load of really long 4 inch square posts. They looked a bit ropey, but were correctly described as sycamore and nobody else was interested. Absolutely beautiful, bone dry and spalted. They turn absolutely beautifully and I’ve made everything from lamps to pepper grinders from them!

 

[JimB]

another advantage of olive is that if you want to dry it in the microwave you can claim you were trying recipes