Tupelo

[cd18524]

I was given a couple sections of tupelo yesterday and won't be able to cut into for a couple of days. Just wondering if anyone has worked with it and if it is a decent looking wood. i have never seen it before. If it is something that is decent I will be able to get plenty of pen blanks out of it, but it is probably too small for any bowl blanks.
Chris

 

[Dario]

Tupelo as I know it is very bland and might not be suitable for pen blanks. It makes nice carving stock for duck decoys though []

 

[woodwish]

I've never turned any tupelo but I have cut down a few in our yard. Wood is very boring with little visable grain for interest, very soft and I think it would tear badly. It is also a very water-soaked wood, weighs a ton when green but when it drys it is like balsa wood. Some of it I saved for firewood and it rotted in one summer, what little was left to burn that had not rotted burned really badly (slow, no heat to speak of). Personally, if I was given a ton of tupelo I would attempt to trade it for one pen blank of real wood. Good luck with it!

 

[Russb]

Find a friend that carves and give it to him....

http://eggtooth.homestead.com/AboutTupeloWood.html

 

[Jim Boyd]

Wow, my experience with tupelo has been very different[]
These were made with tupelo.

 

[woodwish]

Wow, yuu're right, that is not the tupelo we have around here. Ours is about the same color as a very old pair of gym socks washed in nasty water. No visable grain at all.