What is the most difficult wood you turned?

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In my experience the worst is ziricote burl.

It is very nice but it is tear out central. No matter how sharp my skew is and how light I attack it, each pass will tear out somewhere somehow. Sanding it also was a pain because it is very hard.

That was when I am still a newbie (not that I am no longer but I am more exprienced now [:D]) and not sure if I was doing something wrong then.
 
I think my least favorite to date was wenge, but one of the most difficult to deal with was manzanita root burl. It was hard as nails, didn't tear out but chipped rather badly, and was an absolute bear to finish. CA literally just flew off of it. I couldn't give the rest of it away.
 
Soft straight-grained redwood. It drill and turned sweet but the heat from applying the finish peeled it right off the tubes. What a pain!
 
Cross cut Wenge, hands down! The Wenge tops cross cut Zebrawood by a slight margin. I'll take Zebra any day... my Wenge blanks will probably be in my drawer for quite a while. I turned both face cut and cross cut pens just to say I'd conquered it, that was enough. LOL

The redwood I turned cracked under the heat of sanding as well, Bill... not a pen but a tiny goblet and "wine bottle" to match. this was from a small, solid limb of S. gigantea. It was beautiful, but very delicate to finish.

Kevin, I wish I'd known you had manzanita to GIVE AWAY!! I'd happily have taken it off your hands. I've really enjoyed working with the MRB I've turned.

Nancy
 
Smoky10 wrote:
Dry osage orange, make two passes and sharpen your tools.
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Smoky I have never turned osage orange but I have cut alot with a chainsaw. It is the only wood I have cut that can produce sparks when cutting with a chainsaw. IT'S HARD
Ron
 
OK, I know it is supposed to be one but I will narrow it down to 2:

1 - Stabilized Redwood Bark - one I got from Rex Burningham at a show. He said that Craft Supply was going to start carrying them but who knows? Tremendous tear out and lots of CA.

2 - Crosscut Black Palm - enough said

I would love to see (and try) Ziricote Burl though. Sounds very interesting.
 
Corn cobs for a slimline.

I got through the stuff that a corn cob pen is meant to look like and the rest just tore out entirely.

Nasty.

(Does a corn cob count as wood)? Otherwise the hardest I have turned is eucalyptus burl.

Cam
 
1) Xcut Chakte Viga - talk about turing a rock.

Believe it or not the CV was 10 times harder than the 2) xcut Texas Ebony I did just weeks earlier (1 of which actually warped the lower tube of an Olympia while I was turning it).

3) Red Palm
 
Originally posted by PatLawson
<br />Crosscut black palm - no contest.
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That sounds like a challenge to me! [:D]

While reorganizing my pen blanks I came across a good bit of crosscut Black Palm. I need to try it again now that I have a little more experience and maybe patience. LOL

I agree with the Wenge haters. Even with a CA finish, I always end up with white streaks in the grain that don't belong there.
 
Birds-eye maple is the hardest wood I've tried, but the most difficult for me is Bocote. I've tried to make two pens from it and both of them fractured on the lathe.[:(] Bocote must hate me.
 
Palm. About three seconds, back to sharpening wheel. Impossible.

Edit: Depending on what you mean by "hardest to turn". Palm #1 impossible for me; #2 spalted burls, they just come apart unless stabilized; #3 the so-called dymondwoods, very-very hard, I don't like at all.
 
Hardest - Dymondwood. Hard as a rock and dulls your tools faster.

Most problematic - Punky wood - anything that has gone just past the spalted point.
 
Amboyna Burl, Expensive and likes to pop out chunks like other Burls. Real hard on my nervous system.
the single hardest piece of wood I ever turned was a "Challenge Blank" From My Family Woods on e-bay.(It was sold witha warning that it was not for beginners) It was a half rotten piece of Juniper. I blew it apart just drilling it. made an interesting pen though.
 
Gabon ebony, So hard never created shavings just dust. All over dust, like fingerprint powder. Had it all over me. It seemed like it stayed suspended forever, the dust that is.
 
Birds-eye maple is the hardest wood I've tried, but the most difficult for me is Bocote. I've tried to make two pens from it and both of them fractured on the lathe. Bocote must hate me

Interestingly, I have had no problems with either of those, but crosscut cocobolo drives me nuts!!! Aside from the super hard woods, I think everyone's technique might lend to being more successful with different wood, maybe. [:)]
 
I think this has evolved into 2 different questions and I am not sure which was intended. We have the hardest wood in density and the hardest in difficulty.

I answered already in difficult to turn but if we are talking hardest in density I would say either Manzanita Burl, Desert Ironwood Root Burl, or Birdseye Maple that was sunken for 100 years!
 
I agree, wenge sucks. I turn it to round using multiple conservative passes on a metal lathe, never had any tear-out. Using chisels though, it always seeemed like I wood get it near perfect and then blow the blank right of the tube[xx(]
 
I'd have to agree with the crosscut palm group. Very unique if it survives. I've also blown out a number of Thuya blanks. That pains me more because of the cost.
 
Originally posted by smoky10
<br />Dry osage orange, make two passes and sharpen your tools.
Click to expand...

Interesting observation. I love turning OO. Hard, but not difficult.
Recent project.


Edit: P.S. I didn't realize this was an old thread reactivated. Oh, well. Enney chance to boast. [;)]


5221349_Osage%20Orange%20Artists%20Sketch%20Pencil.jpg
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Not a wood....but Denim wrapped around a set of Baron tubes and soaked through and through with thin CA. A couple of passes and its back to sharpening my skew. I finally resorted to a 60 grit gouge!! Second would the the afore mentioned Black palm! Oddly enough some of the others mentioned have never given me trouble. Wenge' for example is one of my favorites to turn, as is Dymondwood, atho it is very difficult to drill and trim because of its hardness. I would think that what's hardest for you would depend a lot on your tool of choice. Woods prone to blow out .....or tear out would it, seems to me, react differently to say a gouge as opposed to a skew. Again this is just MHO so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. [:)]
 
Originally posted by smoky10
<br />Dry osage orange, make two passes and sharpen your tools.
Click to expand...

I haven't had any problem with the Osage Orange - I find it turns quite beautifully as long as the tools are sharp [:p] - but then I'll bet you are better at turning cross cut zebra wood than I am - tearout....etc.

In standard woodworking operations (routing, planing, etc.) I find hickory to be a bear, and planing Zebrawood was also not much fun - maybe my planer knives were getting dull?

Best,
Roger Garrett
 
African Blackwood! Very hard and oily and I find it very difficult to get a good finish. I have a good cutomer that loves this wood and I always struggle to make these pens.
Brad
HardingPens.com
 
Western red cedar wood and alabaster (rock) -

Red cedar splintered and tore. Alabaster is a dusty pain dulling tools.
 
I second that, Alan. I'm 0 for 5 in the cross cut palm. The question was "wood" and as I understand it, palm is a grass. But still, my vote goes to cross cut palm wood..red, black, coconut, or ali: 0 for 5[:(!][:(][V]
Do a good turn daily!
Don
Originally posted by arjudy
<br />Crosscut palm.
Click to expand...
 
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