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  1. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    bilpin
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    Quote Originally Posted by jcge View Post
    Len - I have the same questions about Pittosporum as Privet - is it dense , fine grained and does it finish well?

    John
    It ticks all those boxes. Holly is better but Pittosporum makes a good alternative.

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  3. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Horsham Victoria
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    5,713

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    Quote Originally Posted by jcge View Post
    Dave - I have often wondered if privet would make a good substitute for box (buxus) - is it dense and what type of finish did you achieve?

    John
    John - It looks like it would finish quite well. It has a hard dense feel about it and turns like butter.

    You need to understand before you look at my pics that I am extremely fussy with my timber and go to long lengths to make sure it dries out well and evenly. There is a lot of talk about sealers, painting the ends, stable drying environment etc.

    This privot I picked up around Christmas 2013 and I stuck it under the bed in my Mazda 3000 bus (sleeping on bed) It was in the bus during the summer heat till I returned home about a week later. Prior to my retrieval it had been sitting in a 6 x 4 trailer for a week or two.

    Upon getting home I dragged it out of the bus onto the road-base dark gravel drive where it stayed for the next 8 - 10 weeks throughout a hot inland summer. It got regular shade from about 5 pm till about 9am the following day.

    Once the summer was over I dragged it down the drive to the shade of a white cedar. It happened to be a section that was rather damp and would collect rain water after a fall as half the house empties there.

    After it was allowed to season for about 7 months I then decided to use some for practice pieces. Some of these were spiral candle sticks and this one below was a practice mill shape



    You may notice two pale shades ... no not sap wood and heart wood as you can see I turned close to the centre of the branch. Not sure why the two colours.



    Like all my work I take great care to look after it and keep it in top form for future refference. Please ignore the imbedded gravel from where the kids have been pounding the drive and the scratches from where they have used it playing on the concrete.

    If you really wont to know how some glow looks on it I guess I could treat the piece to a few seconds on the lathe, a wipe of emery paper & a drop of finish.


    Dave the turning cowboy

    turning wood into art

  4. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    266

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    Rustynail - thanks for the feedback on Pittosporum. (And the recommendation for holly)

    DaveTTC - seems like you have let all of your drying secrets out of the bag .... Thanks for the pics - the last shot shows the turning across the heart to look pretty tight.

    Regards,
    John

  5. #19
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Cedarton
    Posts
    4,904

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    Quote Originally Posted by whitewood View Post
    Nice to see someone else recognizing the attributes of Paulownia. Most posts have bagged it because it's soft but it has it good and bad characteristics like any timber.

    Whitewood
    Cheers Whitewood...why people would bag this stuff beggars belief.It is remarkably stable,shows little tangential or radial movement during seasoning,consistent color and grain,has beautiful figure ,dresses,turns and carves brilliantly,borers don't seem to like it,readily takes a stain of color and YES,it is light,BUTso is Red Cedar!!Vastly underestimated.A very versatile timber this one....MM
    Mapleman

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