Thread: Blackwood bowl

Really nice bowl and i love Blackwood, it's one of my favorites.
Well done.

Thanks Peter

Originally Posted by woodtryer

Really nice bowl and i love Blackwood, it's one of my favorites.
Well done.

Thanks Peter

Cheers Peter
Blackwood does have a bit going for it. It cuts/turns well is relatively stable and can have quite attractive grain. It is also a widespread tree here in Australia.
I am very wary of the stuff these days though. There are a lot of woodworkers here in Tassie who just will not touch the stuff. You hear so many stories that go like, "My father died from nasal cancer because he worked with blackwood all the time." Or when you look at the dust from blackwood under a microscope "It is just a bunch of hooks like fish-hooks eager to latch permanently into your lungs just like asbestos". I don't know if that is true or not since I do not have a microscope. Thankfully I have always been very careful of wood dust because i smoked heavily for years and figured that was bad enough without needing to add dust to the mix.
Also in days gone by not that long ago you were considered some sort of weirdo if you wore a dust mask in the workshop. In the absolutely filthy dusty workshop I did my apprenticeship in there was only myself and one other bloke who always wore a mask....out of about 15 workers.
Anyway I do take extra care with blackwood.

Originally Posted by artful bodger

Blackwood does have a bit going for it. It cuts/turns well is relatively stable and can have quite attractive grain.

You hear so many stories that go like, "My father died from nasal cancer because he worked with blackwood all the time."

Anyway I do take extra care with blackwood.

Agreed, and one of the nicest turning woods we have here in the Adelaide Hills.

Same happened with Australian red cedar back in the day when it was commercially milled. Sawmill workers died in disproportionate numbers from, in their case, lung cancer.

Not heard before about Blackwood having hooked fibres. Interesting! It does exhibit that chatoyance effect. I wonder if that has something to do with a hooked fibre structure.

I turn a lot of Blackwood but treat all wood as carcinogenic to some degree. I'm also asthmatic, so am rigorous about dust control.

Stay safe fellow woodturners and, as always.....

Heh. I was taught that Blackwood tends to be host to a variety of bacteria or fungoid that just loves the moist confines of our respiratory passages.

As with the hooked fibres, etc., I don't know how factual this is however I also don't intend to find out by experimenting on myself.


I also love the timber, as your piece shows it can be absolutely gorgeous and I enjoy working with it. Mind you, I've come across some absolute horror pieces when it comes to movement... still, as they say, "every piece is different."

Lovely Bowl and a beautiful wood.

What I love about it (not as a turner) is the luster & chatoiance (reflectance) as well as the colour variations and figure (eg fiddleback)- as well as quilting and birdseye shown in this bowl. Wish it grew burls!

Like many woods it causes health problems, especially to those who become sensitised to its dust.