What is the hardest wood you have turned

[orraloon]

Hi,
I was given the an off cut from an ironbark fence post and for a while I was at a loss what to do with it. I decided to make use of it's hardness so made a mortar & pestle. The bit left over may be a mallet head in waiting. It is well seasoned and this is where sharp tools really count. The bandsaw did not like it much. Spotted gum is a breeze compared to this. The good bit is that it dresses up well and would almost look good without any finish at all. I just gave it a bit of wax.
I know there are harder timbers out there so what are the hard ones some of you have done.

Regards
John

[dai sensei]

Below are 2 pot pourii bowls around 180mm dia made from the same very old 200x75 recycled hardwood plank around 2m long I bought for $20 a while ago. It was like rock and very heavy, I struggled to carry it on my own to the car from the secondhand yeard. It has very similar end grain to your first photo and my guess was Ironbark.

http://www.dai-sensei.com/images/pot%20pourri/pot%20pourri%20(5).jpg

http://www.dai-sensei.com/images/pot%20pourri/pot%20pourri%20(6).jpg

[rsser]

An old bit of redgum off the woodpile.

Brushbox tho not very hard is highly abrasive so you're constantly giving the tools a 'lick'.

[Gil Jones]

So far, the hardest wood was a dry chunk of Persimmon [no pic].

[Manuka Jock]

For me , it is a tie between extremely curly grained heart rimu and the Appalachian oak heart that my cobber imports for making tables .
Both are as dry as a bone , and when turning platters , are rather noisy as well.

[China]

A peice of 20 year ol cocobolo given to me by my late brother, turned a coffe tamp handle from it it was so hard I considered taking it over to the metal lathe

[Harry72]

Crapiarta pine!

WA Karri and some super dry mulga... hard stuff

[WOODbTURNER]

Acacia Puce from Central Australia.
You can actually see sparks fly off it when turned and had to use glove to stop burns on hand.
It is now a protected species.

[TTIT]

Would almost agree with WoodBTurner on the Waddi (acacia peuce) but of the 206 timbers I've tried, Quinine (petalostigma pubescens) (http://web.aanet.net.au/~ttit/treepages/quinine_main.htm) has got to take the cake. Every bit of HSS I poked at it was trashed in just a few rotations - the only thing that ended up cutting it was one of those carbide bits and even that was a struggle. Damned hard stuff!:o

[Claw Hama]

Mine was a nice piece of well seasoned brushbox which i made into a hefty mallet but I still had the little 1/2 hp clone when i did it. I was waiting to see the lathe head and shaft go motoring out through the workshop door (or roof) No blood spilt.

[robutacion]

Hi everyone,

In more recent times (last 3 years), I had one particular piece of wood that I picked-up somewhere, originally though that was Black Wattle rut, or some sort of fruit tree but I got the "works" when I turned it into a bowel. Was tough going from the very beginning but about 2" in into the inside (hollowing), I hit "solid rock". I have tried every tool I had, and in no time they were unable to cut "butter in summer time!:oo:". With another inch or so to go, I gave up, finishing the inside surface with the power drill and sanding pads. Finished with 2 coats of Organoil, the surface and colours did come up beautifully. Always "heavy bottomed" giving the feeling of unbalanced some how, I decided to get it back to the lathe, a year latter, and try this new quality steel tool I had acquired for these situations. Manage to get the outside done a bit thinner and the inside walls just cleaned up when I decided to get that thick bottom removed once and for all. Better said than done, as I got a good grip on the tool expecting some degree of difficulty, within a couple of millimetres in, the hell broke loose and an "almighty" big bang went off, with timber projectiles flying in every direction. After turning the lathe off, and give a quick check-up on what I could see of myself, I did realise the extent of the damage, not on me no...! I was very lucky, the roof and some walls did show some "projectile impact". Was nothing left in the chuck and after some digging among wood shavings and searching on every cavity and surface I could see, I manage to find 9 pieces, many more never found. This thing just exploded...!:o:doh:, I still got the pieces, but identification of the timber species!:no:

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

[artme]

Black Gidgee for a pen!

[Caveman]

Dalbergia melanoxylon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalbergia_melanoxylon) that we get out here :oo::oo::oo: - tried a lump a while back and didn't get much turning done- it still sits, in lump form waiting for me to get back to it.

http://www.exotichardwoods-africa.com/blackwoodafrican.htm

Like a lot of things out here it has been severly over exploited and becoming increasingly rare:~. I have propagated and planted out hundreds of these, but it probably only takes a couple hundred years to mature!

[wheelinround]

:((:B New Guinea Rose wood this weekend at SWWS full of silica 3 no 4 finger gouges finally got it done all I was doing was making a hole for a candle stick holder :doh:

Or the first large piece I turned on the Jet a piece of Bottle Brush still unfinished sitting on my bench almost like concrete:~

[rsser]

I have propagated and planted out hundreds of these, but it probably only takes a couple hundred years to mature!

Well done for going to the trouble Andy.

Good model for the timeframe we should have in mind for our children, and theirs.

[NeilS]

A very seasoned piece of Western Myall (Acacia papyrocarpa) root

[robyn2839]

i had a peice of apple burnt out a tungsten blade cutting it ,and never managed to turn it because it was too hard for my tools....bob

[coffenup]

In my opition the next piece of wood you want to put onto your lathe is the hardest one to turn
:):):)

[DavidG]

Not quite the same thing but once I turned a bowl out of part of a deceased persons work bench, as a keep sake for the widow.

Complete with nails. :C

[jimbur]

Now that is hard David.

[jimbur]

In terms of wood hardness, I've found old yellow box to be very hard at times. E. Melliodora that is.
Jim

[Christopha]

I think that some of you have "hardness" and "difficulty" confused....
That piece of Rosewood that wheelin was chewing away at in Sydney wasn't hard at all, just full of silica that made it "difficult" to turn. In my experience, generally speaking, the "harder" the timber the better it can be to turn. I have had many pieces of timber that turned like silk even thought they were hard, especially those inland acaias. The timber I hate to turn a bowl from most is bloody Blackwood as it can be damned "difficult" but it's a breeze to spindle turn... Ebony is pretty hard but an absolute joy to turn... Anyway, thats my 2 bobs worth.

[Anne Munro]

I turned some pieces of dead finish which came from Far North Queensland, inland from Cairns I think. It was so hard that my fingers ended up with blisters on them there was so much heat. I have to say though that it finished up beautifully. I made a desk piece with a pen and calculator in it.

[Evan Pavlidis]

Goldfields burl for a pen.

[Chikoroll]

rockmaple root

just snap snap snap, shattered lathe tools on the ground.... the boss wasn't happy on the monday morning... :oo:

new set of lathe tools though (still not good quality though):doh:

[Bruce Pennell]

The worst we have out here in the Arizona desert is iron wood. I think steel cut easier. The stuff is terrible on tools. You take 2 or 3 passes and hone your edge. But it has nice reds, and browns mixed in.

[ciscokid]

Kingwood can dull a gouge pretty fast.

[Grumpy John]

The hardest timber I've turned so far has been a piece of Mallee Root. Not only because of the hardness of the timber but also the awkward shape and the fact that it is basically a root ball means there were plenty of foreign bodies embedded in it to give my gouges hell :oo:. Sorry no pics of the original root, a couple of the finished article, still not 100% happy with the finish.

:worthless:

A few pictures of these hard timbers wood be nice.

[mobjack68]

black locust, dried for about 40 years, the rest of the load went into the fireplace...immediately

[Frank Drew]

Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens). I haven't turned ebony yet, but running a piece across my jointer sounded, and felt, as if I was trying to machine a piece of marble.

Tulipwood is hard but turns nicely and you can get a very nice finish just off the tools, Christopha's point, I think.