eucoliptus

The kind that grows around here (ornamental) turns and sands fine and is a beautiful wood. The heartwood, that is. The tree grows in a twisted fashion and after rough turning while green it dries in a twisted fashion. Imagine a bowl that dries into an irregular oval with one side folded in and a crack across the bottom. It ain't worth the effort.

...delurk

Here's a wikipedia link,

"Their importation into California has been beneficial in only very limited circumstances, primarily in their use as windbreaks enclosing large tracts of arid western San Joaquin valley farmland. While some of the Australian gumwoods make a beautiful furniture wood, resembling Teak, an inappropriate type for this purpose was imported into California. This type is neither attractive as a veneer (its color varies from yellowish-gray to grayish-green), useful as lumber (it tends to warp and split after cutting), or even thought well of as firewood"

There's some species here in Aus that turn and work a treat, but lots that don't.

H.

relurk...

There are many different varieties. From my understanding blue gum is close to worthless for anything. This is the predominant California species. It was sold by a fast talking salesman in the late 1800's as the answer to California's need for timber for ship building, construction and railroad ties. There is a plantation not far from my house of trees that were never harvested because it was not even suitable for firewood.

On the otherhand red gum is good wood. I bought a plank and made a number of bowls from it. It cut and finished very well. I bought it from a mill in southern Oregon. The second project on my woodworking page is a red gum bowl. Look at:

thanks for spending time to answer my question .. im sure ill have more testing ones for you soon ..... oh well :( i was hoping i had a good find but at least its free and means more practice for me, who knows i may even get better at some point :)

There are 2 Eucalyptus trees that I have found to be best suited for turning. The prettiest, because of the beautiful bark and heart color is Iron Bark Eucalyptus. The other is Silver Dollar Eucalyptus. Not quite as spectacular but still nice. As others have mentioned, Red Gum is very nice too but I have found that is very susceptible to cracking, but that is my opinion only. Good luck.....Ralph

I see 8 in the list I have. Eucalyptus : Citriodora - Lemon scented gum delegatensis - Alpine ash globulus - Bluegum (note the run-in words) grandis - Blue gum pilularis - Blackbutt resinifera - Red Mahogany robusta - Australian silky oak Siligna - Blue Sydney gum

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Comcast Newsgroups wrote:

The full name for this is >>> Grevillea Robusta