Happy but SOOO confuzed!!

[papNal]

I'm happy cause my little Jet lathe came,along with a truckload of goodies; pen kits,mandrels,pen boxes,blanks,a few things not IDed yet and a bunch of loose bushings that I have no idea where they're supposed to go.Guess I'll have to dust off the calipers.
The real confusion came when I decided to start accumulating some local wood for pen stock.I am like an old hound dog locked in a meat store.I don't know where to start.I have several acres of hardwood of my own,Lake Martin has about 740 miles of shoreline loades with old wood,a friend has a tree cutting business with scads of old and new trees of every type.SOOOO obviously I can't hoard it all,so I would really appreciate any ideas of some of your favorite native wood.We have about everything except hard maple and mesquite.HELPPP.

 

[ldb2000]

Walnut is always good so is any kind of curly wood and crotch pieces can sometimes have fantastic grain patterns and burls of any kind .
You say you purchased some blanks as well so you could turn some of those .

 

[bitshird]

You should not over look plain old walnut, Osage Orqange/Bois Darc is another nice wood, I saw SOME Mulberry the other night that looked great like Walnut , but with a lot of grain, you'll find out that alot of customers will buy local wood pen for some reason. There are lots of different wood in the gulf, just buy a bunch of extra tubes and turn stuff, you'll find something you like.

 

[ed4copies]

I'll third walnut, but if your friend can supply you with palm, try that after you have turned for a while. It is not the most "turner-friendly", but it makes products that sell.

 

[holmqer]

Since you have access to lots of different wood types, try just taking a variety of local woods and just turning them between centers with no tubes. For any given type of wood try various parts of the tree (burls, crotches, strait sections, bias cut etc.) and see how they look with some friction polish.

If you are new to turning, some of these will be hard to turn without tearout, so start off with some strait grain stuff just to get your feet wet before trying the more challenging parts of the tree.

This way, with no intestment in kits, you can quickly see what wood types look good to you and your family / friends. Once you find a few things you like, then make a few of those.

Try out fruit trees (Apple, Avocado and Mulberry are quite nice) and don't overlook bushes like lilac which have thick branches. Nut bearing trees (Walnut, Hickory, Pecan) can look good too.

Box Elder is quite nice looking if that is local for you, as is Eastern Red Cedar, but the latter is very soft and hard to turn without good technique and very sharp tools.

One thing to look for in wood piles is curl, normally you will see strait grain in split logs, but sometimes you will see a ripple pattern extending across many growth rings. GRAB THAT STUFF! Mill a 3/4" square piece of that and turn it between centers and see how that looks, you can find that an otherwise plain looking wood, looks amazing if you find some nice curl in it.

They key is experimentation, you seem to have access to a ton of options, try them out without comitting to a kit. The nice thing is if you turn a piece 3/4" round with no tubes and it looks great, you can always drill it and glue in some tubes and turn it into a pen.

 

[papNal]

Thanks for replys.

A lot of the reclaimed submerged wood in this lake is old heart longleaf pine.Its solid what we call "lighter wood" A deep red or amber color.I'm concerned that the pitch will bleed out if not properly cured and sealed,any ideas?
My turning skills that I almost had 20 years ago done somehow escaped .Looks like folks around me will have to keep stealing plastic pens with medicine and funeral home logos on them for awhile:biggrin:. pap

 

[holmqer]

I've never tried longleaf pine but am curious if it is a soft as most other pine? Douglas fir for example can be easily dented with a fingernail. Also if you cut one of these sunken logs does it bleed resin or just water from years of submersion?

It looks like it would be nice for flatwork, but I am not sure if the growth rings are too far spaced to gave that effect on a fairly thin turning like a pen. If you have some, is it a log or milled into boards?

 

[leehljp]

You should not over look plain old walnut, Osage Orqange/Bois Darc is another nice wood, I saw SOME Mulberry the other night that looked great like Walnut , but with a lot of grain, you'll find out that alot of customers will buy local wood pen for some reason. There are lots of different wood in the gulf, just buy a bunch of extra tubes and turn stuff, you'll find something you like.

I don't know if Ken will look back at this post or not, but I will comment on one thing he mentioned: Mulberry.

The Mulberry over here, looks like a nice teak in color - until it is exposed to light and air for a while and then it turns a pretty walnut color. IF it is coated with a good finish, it may not turn. I don't know how long it takes mulberry to change color but it is only a surface color.

I like both colors but am hoping that for a bowl that I made - I stopped the change with several coats of finish. It looks like a golden teak as it is now. Even if it does change though, it will be OK.