G
Guest
Guest
A local pub is being demolished and a large weeping willow has been cut down.Does anybody know if willow is any good for turning? I have my doubts as it is a quick-growing tree but I would love to be wrong.
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CHJ
Established Member
jaymar, See This Thread for previous discussion of willow.
paulm
IG paulm_outdoors
Hi Jaymar
I "rescued" some willow a few years ago after a local tree was taken down and found that after seasoning for a while the wood was quite loose textured and fluffy which made it difficult to get a good clean finish. Presumably this was due to having a large open cell type structure to the wood. It also tended to flex away from tools if when making a bowl you tried to make the walls too thin.
It also detoriated very quickly in storage if kept as whole logs so would definately suggest splitting down the central pith to minimise cracking if you try and store any, and keep out of direct sunlight so it doesn't dry out too rapidly.
Having said all that I was very pleased with the few successful bowls that emerged as they had a good warm colouring to the timber with some paler streaks if not much figuring.
So if you can get hold of some for free then worth having a go with it, but I probably wouldn't go to a lot of trouble again myself to get a lot of it and try to store it.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
I "rescued" some willow a few years ago after a local tree was taken down and found that after seasoning for a while the wood was quite loose textured and fluffy which made it difficult to get a good clean finish. Presumably this was due to having a large open cell type structure to the wood. It also tended to flex away from tools if when making a bowl you tried to make the walls too thin.
It also detoriated very quickly in storage if kept as whole logs so would definately suggest splitting down the central pith to minimise cracking if you try and store any, and keep out of direct sunlight so it doesn't dry out too rapidly.
Having said all that I was very pleased with the few successful bowls that emerged as they had a good warm colouring to the timber with some paler streaks if not much figuring.
So if you can get hold of some for free then worth having a go with it, but I probably wouldn't go to a lot of trouble again myself to get a lot of it and try to store it.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
