Thread: What is the hardest wood you have turned

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

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

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.

Now that is hard David.

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

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.

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.

Goldfields burl for a pen.

rockmaple root

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

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

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.

Kingwood can dull a gouge pretty fast.

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 . Sorry no pics of the original root, a couple of the finished article, still not 100% happy with the finish.



A few pictures of these hard timbers wood be nice.

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

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.