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Turning willow?

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20200419_132936.jpg Neighbor has a tree service and doing a lot of cleanup after the tornadoes. Got a piece of willow about 24 inches long and 6-7 inches in diameter. Worth keeping? Rough turn wet? Advice is welcome.
 
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Hey it is free. Do a couple whatevers and decide for yourself. From what I have heard you probably won't like it. I turned a piece of black willow several yrs ago and liked it. There are a lot of different willow species and cultivars. Allyn
 

hockenbery

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You might try a NE bowl. The sap ring promises a nice looking bowl.
turn it before the sap ring looses its white- that would be soon.

There are many willows most are very soft and demand attention to floating the bevel and sharp tools. Any defect in tool sharpness or riding the bevel will result in tearout.

Light cuts, sharp tool, floating the bevel are essential with Virginia willow.

I had a bunch of Virginia willow that I used for a workshop at my house.
Prior to the workshop, I turned a NE bowl from it. Other than not shear scraping like many soft woods the bowl came out fine. What I didn’t realize was how valuable it would be in identifying anyone who strayed from the bevel.

The students did not appreciate this character of the wood and most formed a bias against willow, accused me of being cruel to them, etc.
 
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Personally, I find willow very attractive and it's probably our biggest native wood. Lots of people don't like it because it's shaggy/furry when turned, and doesn't cut cleanly.

Your log would make some nice small bowls, whichever orientation you turn them. But not so good for baseball bats. See if your neighbor would save you some larger pieces next time, with a bark-on diameter about the same as the throw on your lathe. (BTW, the end of this log is showing you the cut line for ripping into half logs.)

In my experience, some willow wood cuts much better than others, and my current theory is that it depends on where it grew. If it grew in or along an active watercourse then it is probably fuzzy. If it grew somewhere without a live ditch or stream, and not heavily irrigated by the landowner, then it's not fuzzy. Willow 'seeds' new trees by branches breaking off and floating down a moving watercourse and getting stuck in soft, moist soil, so basically all natural willow started out on the path to becoming fuzzy, except landscaping specimens. Many old irrigation ditches or streams dry up, however, so maybe that's when they change to the un-fuzzy path. It's also possible that the fuzziness is related to the particular species of willow, but there are a bazillion species and it's really hard to tell them apart, so no good way to investigate that theory. Or maybe willow cut when the tree is fully dormant is less fuzzy. So many theories, so little time.

Thanks for the tip on gliding on the bevel, Al. I'll pay attention to that when next I get a piece of willow and see how I do. Probably I would not be the winner in your class, but I will definitely appreciate the skill building value of the wood's feedback.
 
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Thanks. Will give it a try. I can cut it tomorrow.
Bill, I can't ride the bevel. I'm too old to get my leg up on the lathe bed.:confused:
 
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One of our species in N. TX is the black willow - they tend to grow at the edge of a pond or small lake. And they get huge.
As per the advice above, a sharp edge is paramount - the stuff is soft. Get ready for above average warping - it is volatile - above 10% and more for both radial and tangential should be planned around.
If you get a log from the lowest part of the main trunk (a few inches up from the ground), the stuff can be spectacular. My advice would be to put it on the lathe when dripping wet, shape to final, and then let dry over several months. If you can get it under 10%, maybe down to 7%, and without cracks, you're home free. While the dry willow cuts and surfaces much better, the degree of warp is challenging. On the 21" dia piece pictured, I first cut it to 1.5" wall thickness - when I went back months later, the warp was so extreme that I was concerned about going through the side.
It was put in the gallery in a small show and sold in the first few hours - only then did someone refer to the Sistine Chapel - if I had noticed how two bark inclusions seem to reach out and touch, I could have claimed divine inspiration and got more. Lesson learned: occasionally stand back and take a fresh look - you might see something.10_29_11_30 Blk Willow side.jpg
 
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