What is the most difficult wood you turned?

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I am going to turn some of the desert iron wood this weekend, so I am glad I read the forum first, it is like a slab of metal!

Dogwood is the only wood I know that gives my chainsaw the cold sweats. A 5 inch diameter tree will ruin a chainsaw blade faster than cutting pavement......After it dries out it still is very hard wood. I dont recall seeing sparks, but I did see tears from my chainsaw....LOL.....

I have turned some York Gum Burl that was pretty tough, and some Red Morrel Burl that was hard.....
 
Granted, I have not made many pens yet, but the worst so far was a chunk of pink ivory. The blank had a nice crack in it that I figured I could work around. Well, I did for a bit as I had pretty much filled the crack really well with CA.

Then when turning it the blank pretty much exploded. It just blew apart right on the lathe. After a lot of griping and cussing and stomping my feet, I glued it back up and put it back on the lathe. No more chunks of wood flying around, thankfully, but then the gouges had to keep being resharpened. After two and a half hours of this, I had the first of the two peices done.

So, I did the second part of the pen. Again, the chunk blew apart and again I fixed it. Another two hours of this and the pen was ready to be sanded.

I must say, all the trouble was worth it. It came out really well - the wood around the cracks turned a much darker color so it makes them stand out. I don't know how to describe it really, other than to say it almost looks like a chunk of marble.

I made the pen for a friend of mine and she seemed to really like it.

But, for now, I refuse to work with pink ivory for a while.
 
I have some OAK beams (2.5" x 15" x 5')from a dismantled barn that was built in the late 1800's. I have to sharpen my tools 2-3 times per pen. It seems almost like petrified wood!
Not the most colorful wood but when it is done, it has the nicest chetoyance, just incredible!
I have more of this wood if anyone is interested in a trade.
One of my earlier photos, not the best!



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If you were to ask me this a year and a half ago I would have said x-cut palm red palm.
Tday I would say any of the softer woods.
X-cut, bias cut woods con't bother me, I don't flinch at any of them.With the way I do glue ups there isn't any particular direction that I can count on.
Toothpicks are sort of tough because the end grain with CA is so much harder than the rest of the blank.
The most difficult stuff I have turned to date is plexiglass with a laminated wood glue up in it.
Using Ca makes the difficult woods"easy"


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The hardest for me is desert ironwood. I've had some trouble with wenge, but it turns out pretty good. Most Osage I've turned has been green since I had a source from a live tree. I have the most failures from Dymondwood... if I get too agressive I lose the blank every time.
 
i can say the today the hardest turning wood was old fence post osage orange. i'll bet that it was out in the elements for years and years, it was a dark coffee brown in color and as hard as a rock. i need to sharpen every chisel i used, twice. desert iron wood is hard, but not as hard as this OO was.

laurie
 
Crosscut desert ironwood here. I think I'm turning too slow. (did I just say that?!)
I have a stock of blanks, going to try again at a step faster spin. Moving slowly, the roughing gouge had too much chance to grab which split the crosscut grain.
 
Tried crosscut ipe, tore out huge chunks no matter how sharp my chisels were. Wasted 2 blanks in this attempt and finally gave up. Too bad really, as the blanks I cut from this particular block of ipe had a nice greenish chatoyance. Maybe I'll use the rest for door stops.[:eek:)]
 
I don't like turning purplehart, gives too much dust but the finish is beautifull.
I've tryed cross-cut zebrawood, every time when i came near the good diameter it blows [:(]
Had no problem with Wenge, but difficult to finish, i was'nt able to seal the grain correctly, by the finishing i had white spots into the grain. Maybe i do'nt use a good sealer.
I've buyed a couple of black palm blanks straight cut, is this even difficult as cross cut ??
Nice day everyone and good turning
 
Hi everybody,
In the saga of difficult woods i can add apricot tree.
I've turned yesterday a piece of this wood, not for pens, it's for a gobelet. Not easy to turn, no scrolls only dust [:(] Even with the skew it was'nt realy easy to obtain a nice surface. Even after sanding and sealing 3 times the wood looks as not turned but scraped [:(!]
I've got 1 piece of it over, but i think that it will stay in the storage corner
 
Marblewood. I bought some stabilized Marblewood. Sharpened the tools, Took as light a cut as I could. Blows off in big chunks. Glue on chunks. Blows off other chunks. Of 3 blanks, I got 1 pen. The last one started blowing up. I was so frustrated that I took huge bites and smiled as it flew apart off of the lathe. The one pen that turned out has three patches on it, but looks incredible.
 
I must be one of the fools that likes Wenge.. it's hard, but I get good results.. just don't think it's all that pretty. I tried black palm one time, wound up with many more pieces than I started with... this may have been the blank that convinced me to buy a face shield instead of just safety glasses..
 
Only wood that i've turned that really gives me fits is Ebony. It's so soft, i've managed to bork about 3 out of 5 blanks. I did get a nice set out of it tho, but boy did it take some time and finesse.

Wade
 
Originally posted by RonMc1954
<br />Smoky10 wrote:
Dry osage orange, make two passes and sharpen your tools.
Click to expand...
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
Click to expand...

OO has a high silica content. That is what makes the sparks. I love turning it. Sell some too, customers are happy. [8D]
 
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