A pair of bowls

[holmqer]

Avocado Bowl, finished with Waterlox. I'm almost out of Avocado wood, the logs I sent home from Santa Barbara are almost gone. I have one big piece left and have a couple of "in-progress" pieces.

Sassafras Bowl, finished with Waterlox. The heartwood was really punky, so was almost impossible to get a decent surface on the dark spots. I wanted to retain some of the contrasting heartwood for appearance.

I don't turn much ring-porous wood like this, so not sure how much better I could have done on the surface texture.

 

[David Keller]

Nicely done.

 

[Fred]

Very nice turning job. Very nice indeed!

 

[nava1uni]

Nice bowls. I really like the avocado wood. How does it turn?

 

[holmqer]

Nice bowls. I really like the avocado wood. How does it turn?

Thank you, Avocado is a fairly soft hardwood and so can be quite prone to tearout unless you are careful to use sharp tools and good technique. Unlike other softer hardwoods like Poplar, it can turn to a very smooth clean surface. One issue is Avocado quite prone to relates to spalting. It has a tendancy to get quite punky if allowed to spalt a lot and the punky stuff somewhat resembles some of the medular rays of Oak which can give a turning a cratered surface

Despite being a bit more challanging to turn than easier woods like Maple and Cherry, it has very beautiful grain, and out in California is quite easy to get. I know in the Santa Barbara area where my family lives, it goes for $175 a cord delivered. If you drive by Avocado farms in the area in February, you can often just pick up Winter kill Avocado tree trunks on the side of the road for free.

Considering how beautiful the wood looks when turned, I have long been puzzled why it is not more easily commercially available in any size bigger than pen blanks. Every so often I get a tree trunk or two and ship it home to CT. It costs a lot, but everyone back East is always amazed by it.