# Any woods you dont like for turning?



## Woodychips (Oct 3, 2015)

I've got a few for different reasons. Walnut drives my sinus's crazy. Manitoba maple smells like a barnyard and is even worse when it has a ton of red in it. 

I still use both.


----------



## Woodychips (Oct 3, 2015)

Forgot to add a few pics


----------



## hwebb99 (Nov 27, 2012)

I don't like oak ( I have to heat my house with something ). I don't like oak in general for woodworking. I also don't like to turn hickory, but I use it sometimes for handles.


----------



## thenodemaster (Jun 14, 2015)

I don't like Wenga/Wenge. Real splintery on the lathe.


----------



## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

I wear a powered air purifying respirator (3M Airstream AS-400), but occasionally I will just use an N100 or N95 mask for a small quick project. I turn mesquite, post oak (a white oak), maple, juniper, cedar, hackberry, walnut, elm, sycamore, cocobolo, and just about anything else that I happen to come across. Most of these will cause an attack of sinusitis if I don't use respiratory protection.

There are two things that I don't like to turn: MDF and black palm. Strictly speaking, neither one is really wood.

MDF is useful for lots of things, but it is a nasty material to turn. First there is the fine wood dust and then a very large percentage of MDF is made up of polymerized urea formaldehyde resin and methyl-diphenyl-diisocyanate and/or melamine urea formaldehyde resin, all of which are hazardous.

Turning black palm is like turning a porcupine -- millions of tiny sharp needles that get all over you and into your skin when you try to brush or blow it off. I would recommend a disposable full hazmat suit when turning the stuff. You can get away with less protection if turning little tiny things like cabochons for a box or bottle stopper. I wouldn't recommend turning something larger like a peppermill from black palm -- it's just too messy a job.

I know one turner who gets severe contact dermatitis from cocobolo dust. If you develop contact dermatitis from one wood species, you are at a greater risk of developing a reaction to other species of wood.


----------



## Big Jim (Sep 29, 2011)

*Howdy Bill*



Bill Boehme said:


> I wear a powered air purifying respirator (3M Airstream AS-400), but occasionally I will just use an N100 or N95 mask for a small quick project. I turn mesquite, post oak (a white oak), maple, juniper, cedar, hackberry, walnut, elm, sycamore, cocobolo, and just about anything else that I happen to come across. Most of these will cause an attack of sinusitis if I don't use respiratory protection.
> 
> There are two things that I don't like to turn: MDF and black palm. Strictly speaking, neither one is really wood.
> 
> ...


 Now you know two guys that get contact dermatitis! Started with cocobolo and has went to almost any wood that has lots of oil in it.
So I wear a denim apron with the bib modified to fit closely to my neck and a long sleeve under it. Also never turn without GLOVES! 
I have a 4 inch dust system directly to the turning point of my lathe, With the exhaust outside my small shop.
I can even turn Chechen (the black wood of death) without any problems. I have no fine dust and my skin is protected.
Big Jim


----------



## Woodychips (Oct 3, 2015)

@hwebb99. Ever turn bitternut hickory? Nice wood


----------



## hwebb99 (Nov 27, 2012)

Woodychips said:


> @hwebb99. Ever turn bitternut hickory? Nice wood


 No. Do you have any pictures?


----------



## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

Balsa


----------



## thenodemaster (Jun 14, 2015)

I have to agree with Bill on the palm. Red and black palm look so fake when finished. Like someone just too a sharpie along the grin.


----------



## bond3737 (Nov 13, 2009)

elm smells like poop to me. Hate hackberry, lots of waste and it greys over time. Hate old barnwood, super dry super hard oak. Same with old pine just splinters all over the place and hard to get a detail. And cedar. Fresh from the tree it seems to crack fast. Like it as a final project and love the smell just tougher than most to work with. In general just hate unexpected knots you find on a lot of softwoods. Love me some punky gnarly wood just not the knots:no:


----------



## Woodychips (Oct 3, 2015)

bond3737 said:


> elm smells like poop to me. Hate hackberry, lots of waste and it greys over time. Hate old barnwood, super dry super hard oak. Same with old pine just splinters all over the place and hard to get a detail. And cedar. Fresh from the tree it seems to crack fast. Like it as a final project and love the smell just tougher than most to work with. In general just hate unexpected knots you find on a lot of softwoods. Love me some punky gnarly wood just not the knots:no:


Yup same here with the poopy elm. Manitoba maple is very similar. 

Gotta say, your profile pic freaks me out. LOL


----------



## bond3737 (Nov 13, 2009)

Right but it drives all the ladies wiiiild Like the forms you have up there. Have never turned manitoba burl but it looks amazing thought it mighta been box elder burl for a sec. Not trying to hijack the thread but the finish on the walnut looks great. what did you use?


----------



## Woodychips (Oct 3, 2015)

Actually Manitoba maple is Box Elder. Same wood, just the common name. Whenever I make a piece I label it Box Elder. Am sick to death of hearing about everyone's "weed tree". 

The finish is General Finishes Salad Bowl.


----------



## bond3737 (Nov 13, 2009)

lol I thought something looked familiar! I wont abide that trash tree talk in my shop! have a whole trees worth of roughed out flamey flame bowls a dryin! That tree curls and burls like no other. I actually dont think ive ever turned a piece that wasnt all curled out. Dont think Ive ever seen a box elder burl with such great flame consistency though. A very nice find indeed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOBHn4E2lDU . Gotta get some of that general finishes salad bowl ive heard good things all around. Gazillions of varnish coats are kicken my butt.


----------



## Woodychips (Oct 3, 2015)

hwebb99 said:


> No. Do you have any pictures?


Sorry took me a while to find the pictures for you. Wound up taking pictures of the pictures on my computer screen. 

Bitternut hickory is a nice wood to turn. The colour is similar to cherry and the wood reminds me of a tight grained elm. It's the bark that really attracts my eye. The logger that I got this from wanted me to see what this stuff was like because it had bird peck. He thought that it wood go deep but it was all surface markings.


----------



## Big Jim (Sep 29, 2011)

*Howdy woodychips*

What you need is a program to activate your "print screen" key! I use a little program named PRINTKEY and it works wonders. I (you) can get any part of what is on your screen from anywhere you go.
Like this.


Big Jim


----------



## bond3737 (Nov 13, 2009)

man these are fantastic. what finish do you typically use on highly figured wood?


----------



## Woodychips (Oct 3, 2015)

Big Jim said:


> What you need is a program to activate your "print screen" key! I use a little program named PRINTKEY and it works wonders. I (you) can get any part of what is on your screen from anywhere you go. Like this. Big Jim


Only problem with that is this program is only on my iPad and the pics were on the computer.


----------



## Woodychips (Oct 3, 2015)

bond3737 said:


> man these are fantastic. what finish do you typically use on highly figured wood?


Same finish on everything. General Finishes salad bowl. The high figured harder woods just take less coats.


----------



## Maylar (Sep 3, 2013)

I don't like to turn osage orange. Every piece I've done has cracked.


----------



## Bill Boehme (Feb 9, 2014)

Maylar said:


> I don't like to turn osage orange. Every piece I've done has cracked.


Maybe it isn't real Osage Orange. I bought a piece at Rockler's that was labeled as Osage Orange, but it was too heavily waxed to confirm the identity (the wax was tinted orange). When I started turning it, I realized that it wasn't Osage Orange unless there is some other wood that goes by that name that I don't know about. The shavings and dust from the real stuff is an unmistakable almost-glow-in-the-dark fluorescent yellow. Anyway the wood that I bought was a slightly orange-pinkish tan and it just loved to crack. I finally applied enough thin CA to stop the cracking. It is now the handle for my detail gouge.


----------

