I have worked with many domestic and exotic woods in the last 20 years. Many are special to me. Which woods are your favorite to work with. My favorite domestic is vertical grain fir. It is a bear to work with but it is my all time favorite. For exotics, I think Tulipwood is my favorite. It is a whitish wood with streaks of pink, purple and blue. max
Without a doubt, walnut, walnut, walnut!
M A H O G A N Y !
If you work with hand tools and have tried mahogany you know why it's called The King of Woods.
charlie b
I like Thuya Burl, Amboyna Burl and Snakewood used in combination with ebony.
To work with, especially on the scroll saw it's a toss-up between walnut and mahogany. To look at would have to be tiger maple.
Kevin Daly
Walnut crotch wood
quarter sawn sycamore
I have worked with osage orange, maple, red oak, holly, paduak, cocobolo, honey locust, and cherry. For looks and strength, honey locust is the best wood I've worked with by a landslide. The sapwood is a bright yellow, and the highly figured heartwood ranges from light brown to brown with streaks of pink, purple and deep burgundy. I live in ohio, where the honey locust is plentiful and had about 60 bf, milled from 2 logs my brother in law cut. If you ever come across this wood, don't hesitate to grab it. I may have a chance at close to
1000 bf of this in a few years, which I would consider milling into extraordinary flooring.
Sounds wonderful. Do you have any pictures of your stock or things you've done in it?
Cherry by far. I love the way it works, I love the figure and I love the way it looks after a year or so.
I've worked with a half dozen varieties. Need to try another half dozen or so before I decide. Don't laugh, I still like working with pine but cherry is still the nicest to finish. Ed.
Hickory... Because it make sthe food taste so good... But somehow I doubt that was the perspective you were looking for.
Regards, Joe Agro, Jr.
Walnut for its beauty and ease to work with. Oak for its forgivingness.
As a beginner, I prefer beech (I'm in Europe). It's easy to work with, and it's affordable. I do make mistakes sometimes and I'd hate wasting exotic woods...
As for the looks I really like wenge, it's becoming very fashionable over here.
Marton
Leon responds:
Good choices. I also like cherry for its beauty, osage orange for its color, mesquite for its variety, poplar for its ease of working, locust for its general utility and its surprise, QS sycamore for both beauty and workability, cedar (red) for its aroma...and others for other reasons.
Charlie Self "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H. L. Mencken
Walnut and mahogany are my favorites too. My only complaint with walnut is the dust. My only complaint with mahogany is the cost.
For turning though, what little I've done, I have to say my favorite is really wet sycamore. That stuff flies off like silly string when it's freshly harvested!
Pussy Willow. SH
Maple Mahogany Walnut Oak Purpleheart Birch Cherry
Oh heck, I like 'em all!
Dave
Chris Hornberger wrote: snip
I've got a bunch of what I was told was either honey or black locust. Here's a pair of coopered doors - with coats of garnet shellac so the color's been changed. There are really nice areas with chatoyancy (the thing a tigereye stone exhibits) which make the finished surface interesting as you move around it.
charlie b
That strikes me as an odd question. My favorite wood tends to be the wood that fits a particular project (unless it is on the short list of woods I hate to work). When the wood fits the project the result will be pleasing in it's own way. When the wood competes with the design aspect both end up losing.
hex
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Wed, Nov 10, 2004, 4:55am (EST+5) snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net (max) asks?: Which woods are your favorite to work with.
No brainer. Free wood.
So far, this includes: Holly, dogwood, hickory, oak, poplar, pine, Spanish cedar, Philippine mahogany, teak, and a number of others I'm not sure of. This doesn't include plywood, which I have gotten free at times, but usually buy.
JOAT Viet Nam, divorce, cancer. Been there, done that. Now, where the Hell are my T-shirts?
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