What To Look For In Wood

[Time2Write]

When looking for a nice piece of wood to turn, what do you look for? Can I just go to my local reclamation yard and buy a vintage piece of wood to turn? What if I am traipsing through my local woodland and see a piece of Oak, is there a drying out process before I can use it?

 

Always learnig

[mbradley]

Any wood should go through a drying process before being shaped into an object. If you skip this step you risk having your pen body twist or shrink.

 

Michael

[jj9ball]

99% of the wood that people will suggest to you to turn or that you might initially think will look good (think of someone saying - oh that piece of oak, walnut, maple, sycamore, etc. would make a really nice pen.) will actually be incredibly plain and boring. The reality is that because of the size of the finished product the only woods (all of this is just my opinion) will look like anything at all are the burls and exotics. My favorites in no order are

amboyna burl

maple burl

boxelder burl

cocobolo

kingwood

pink ivory

tulipwood

lignum vitae (with no finish this makes a really cool pen)

curly koa

really curly maple

cherry burl

buckeye burl

thuya burl

There are more but I'm tired of typing. Notice that many of the above are burls. Almost all burls look decent on a pen. If you use "plain wood" try to mix heart and sapwood as this will give some visual interest to an otherwise plain looking pen. I hope this helps. Most of the fun is in the experimentation. Everyone has different tastes... so after a while you'll develop your own list I'm sure. The main thing is to enjoy the process.

Jeff.

Edited September 21, 2014 by jj9ball

[mikespenturningz]

I look for tight curling and quilting in my woods. In burl I look for small tight eyes and colors. jj9ball is right that because a pen is so small you need to have very tight small features. I use stabilizing to dye burls also and find this really brings out the features. I have a piece of buckeye burl that I colored this way and the blue actually looks metallic because of the chatoyance at that particular spot. BTW I love all of those woods that he mentions and then some. The premium pieces of wood are not cheap though. I paid $150 for a piece of really premium quilted maple. The pens that I turn from it are spectacular but they are not cheap pens either.

[Dalepenkala]

Agreed with Mike & jj9ball. My all time favorite wood is HRB and Brazilain rosewood. Some of this wood is just incredible especially when you get a piece with both heart and sapwood in one piece!

[duncsuss]

I agree wholeheartedly with Jeff, Mike and Dale.

 

My (current) favourite woods are Amboyna burl, Honduras Rosewood burl, and Aspen burl.

 

There are other types of wood that can be spectacular -- a lot of woods develop spalting (black lines that show where fungus has gone into the wood and started the process of rotting) which can really spice up a dull piece.

 

Here's an example -- spalted hackberry, cut across the grain:

 

 

[rudyhou]

I agree wholeheartedly with Jeff, Mike and Dale.

 

My (current) favourite woods are Amboyna burl, Honduras Rosewood burl, and Aspen burl.

 

There are other types of wood that can be spectacular -- a lot of woods develop spalting (black lines that show where fungus has gone into the wood and started the process of rotting) which can really spice up a dull piece.

 

Here's an example -- spalted hackberry, cut across the grain:

 

IMGP6203.jpg

 

 

[rudyhou]

first and foremost, i'd look for an interesting grain pattern. second, the shade of brown/color. i tend to shy away from those that look less brown and prefer darker shade. then again, it's all personal choice.

[PDW]

Just about to get into pen turning so I have no personal experience, but I have a couple of Lamys with wooden grips. The pearwood they used is really boring (little detail, can look like plastic from a distance!), but unknown wood dyed grey looks much more interesting as the dye brought out the grain detail..

Edited October 19, 2014 by PDW

[79spitfire]

For beginners, my favorite inexpensive wood is Maple. It tends to look very plain, but turns nicely. It lets you develop your skills BEFORE getting more expensive woods. Also Maple takes various stains very well. This one is Noodler's Nakita. The figuring was all but invisible until it was stained.