Thread: Free wood ???

Have you ever tried to cut up a fig? They can stop chainsaws.

I am no turner. Don't have, or want, a lathe.

I have been told that the root timber of the Moreton Bay fig can be turned and reveals a nice variety of colour and some interesting grain. Can one of the "round" people out there confirm that.

G'day.

Fig is one of those things that is full of sticky, gooey, gluey, milky sap that turns into tissue paper once the sap is gone.

I think I'd rather play with bitumen than fig.

Actually I use a good bit of fig, both morton bay and small leaf fig. It is easy to cut fresh, I've never had any trouble with the sap (wear gloves). It dries quickly without many cracks into a light strong wood that is easy to cut sand glue and shape. However it does not take a very good finish and is not at all durable. But it is good for small items.

I have turned spalted morton bay fig, which I rescued from the tip. Mine finished pretty OK and I used hut wax sticks to polish it with.

I dried the bowl with a heat gun....at a distance....before finish sandin to 400 grit. The last item I made from it was a lidded box, it was very interresting with the spalting ( or was it stain from the concrete floor I left the log on) and it didn't distort at all. It was the first item to sell when I put some bowls on a craft sale.

Cya

Joe


Len perhaps its the " secundem artum' that does it! Cya.