Tulipwood - ok for turning?

[gasmansteve]

Hi all
Been given some nice pieces of Tulipwood and Ash up to 14" square and 3" thick. Never tried Tulipwood before, anyone had a go with this wood?. Its bone dry and apparently been in his garage 16yrs , seems quite hard.
Regards
Steve

 

[kasandrich]

I have turned a pen in tulip wood, it came out lovely. nice to turn, even firmness, and got a really nice finish without difficulty.

 

[gasmansteve]

Thats promising then Richard thanks!. Think I`d get a few pens out of this lot :lol:
Steve

 

[kasandrich]

Thats promising then Richard thanks!. Think I`d get a few pens out of this lot :lol:
Steve

:lol: :lol: I just mentioned it was a pen, as it was therefore only a small blank and it could be that with a larger blank there could be more variety in the grain.

Had some lovely colour in it.

 

[gasmansteve]

Some nice flashes of purple and black in some of the pieces if I can position it right on`t lathe.
Steve

 

[colin macdiarmid]

tulip wood is lovely to work with, you get nice finish, I've made a wee bowl and pens out of it, see gallery three on my website, not the best off photos right enough, enjoy

 

[duncanh]

As far as I know there are several types of tulipwood. One from Brazil and one from North America.

Check out Wikipedia

I've used what I think was the US one for some platters. It's fairly soft and cuts easily. I found it difficult to get a good finish from sanding (possibly too soft) but when I did it was lovely. Quite easy to mark though afterwards.
I've also used some for tool handles because it was cheap.

I think I've got some of the Brazilian type as well but have only turned a pen. A very different timber - harder, with a much more open grain and a completely different colour. This one was red/pink and cream as in the photo on the Wikipedia page.

 

[Paul.J]

Steve.
This is the N American TW i used to turn for the first time.It is soft and does mark easily,but i got a good finish with a sharp tool.It is good for carving

 

[TobyB]

I had some - which I think must have been the N.American stuff - yellowish-green - not very hard, very coarse grained. Brittle splinters often rather than shavings came off the tools - nasty dust. Difficult to get a finish. Not going to do any more - certainly wouldn't recommend the stuff I had for turning.

 

[SVB]

Steve,

Ignore the above, it is horrible stuff and even dangerous. I may be in your neck of the woods in the next week or so, I will take it out of your way before it causes you a problem.

I have a couple of Banksia nuts you can have which I am sure you will love turning and enjoy the smooth and satisfying results and overall experiance.


...................... well, I think that is right or do I have it the wrong way round? :?


Happy turning,
S
:lol:

 

[Jonzjob]

All this is quite interesting because there are a lot of tulip trees along the Canal du Midi. About a year back we were walking along the canal and met a couple of French arbourists cutting 2 of these down because they were diseased. Being a cheeky sod I asked what the chance was of a couple of lumps and was told that they were breaking for lunch soon and would be passing wgere we were parked and would give me as much as I wanted! " of the bits had to be lifted out of the car by my OH and me cause they were so perishing heavy and big. The trees were about 80 to 100 foot monsters and beautiful.

So now I have about 8 quite large bits of it and was wondering what it was going to be like to turn? \in truth, I couldn't wait so not long after I had the wood I turned 2 small bowls, one of which managed to get across the workshop when the, unseen by me, crack let go. I glued it back together as it was a clean break and it was OK. I also found out just how big longhorn beetles are when 4 appeared form a couple of bits too. They are bruddy huge!! :shock:

The flowers are really lovely and the leaves are a bit strange, like a 4 lobed maple leaf.

Hi folks, I thought that you might like this one. Some lovely pikkies in there!

The trees are just coming into bud now..

 

[gasmansteve]

Colin - nice piece that on the web site and nicely turned I`d be very pleased if it came out like that.
Paul - like that piece the finish looks very smooth, the piece I have seems very hard though but not tried the chisel on it yet.

Simon - :lol: :lol: :lol:


Steve

 

[The Wood Doctor]

I think there may be some confusion here regarding the timber under discussion.

The Tulipwood Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) is the tree photographed above and the timber from this tree is fairly soft and light timber with plain and unremarkable grain, referred to as 'yellow poplar' in the USA I believe.

The exotic timber referred to as 'Tulipwood' (Dalbergia decipularis) and is highly figured and coloured and is usually imported from Brazil and Columbia.

Ben