anyone turned yew wood?

[fafow]

I have some yew wood that I was planning on turning. I turned one piece and it looks like I get pitch (or at least black splotches on the sides with all the grain) and cannot get rid of it. Has anyone turned this wood before? When I first turned it I had my lathe at 3000 rpm. I have not tried turning at a slower speed yet.

 

[JimB]

Yew was one of the first pens I made about 4 or 5 months ago. That is the only time I turned it. It turned easy and nothing unusual happened. Of course, since it was one of my fist pens may I just didn't notice anything. I turned it at about 2600 rpm.

 

[hilltopper46]

Here are a couple that I turned from an evergreen ornamental bush that we call Japanese Yew.

If they aren't too large the black lines may only add to the character of the piece.

Do the black splotches look like burn marks? I turned both of these as fast as the lathe would turn.

 

[drayman]

i think its one of the nicest woods to turn, but never had any black on it.

 

[rb765]

Yew

I haven't turned any yet, but have some en route from GB. Hopefully soon.

 

[livertrans]

Yew did a excellant job. Looks great to me.

 

[btboone]

Haven't turned it. Have yew?

 

[Ligget]

I have turned Yew, and it is beautiful!

 

[fafow]

thanks for the input

I'll give it another shot. I was surprised to see the black splotches. I will cut another piece of a chunk of wood I have and see if it will turn clean. The wood looks like it has some nice figure to it.

 

[Russianwolf]

Craig, post a pic of the first one so we can see the splotches you are talking about. Sometimes they are natural, other times they are something we are responsible for.

 

[fafow]

more

I cut another piece last night and turned it. The black "splotches" are not as pronounced on this one. I looked closer at the block I cut the wood from and it has black streaks or thin lines here and there and they go with the grain, so I guess this is really just a feature of this particular cut of the wood. Don't know why I didn't notice that before, but I do know my brain hasn't been working all the efficiently for the past 3 months due to some very significant personal issues going on at home. Thanks everyone for your help with this.

 

[wood-of-1kind]

One for yew

Here's my yew for U