I have access to some curly willow and was wondering if anyone has any experience with this species or any willow species for that matter. Turnability, grain type (open, tight, wild, etc), color of sap wood vs. heart wood, look of finished wood, etc. would be helpful. Thanks much... John
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Turned Curly Willow
- Thread starter John Chianelli
- Start date
john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
The willow I turned was the worst wood I have turned. It's very stringy and hard to cut clean. I don't recommend it and that come from someone who will turn almost anything.
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I turned willow when I had it. Wish I had more, because it had some great figure from its slanted habit of growth and wonderful thick bark to dress up the heart down pieces.
It smells kind of bad where included water's stagnant, and it has soft and interlaced (therefore curly) grain which means it's no picnic to cut wet. Scrape it and it's sludge, cut it and it's fuzz. When dry it's just soft and easily bruised. I use broad sweep gouges for finishing, so I was able to avoid dealing with bruises and most of the fuzziness as well. Keep the face of your cuts narrow and it won't tear and fuzz.
It will warp, but I think you'd almost have to throw it out into the sun or abuse it some other way to get it to crack while drying.
It smells kind of bad where included water's stagnant, and it has soft and interlaced (therefore curly) grain which means it's no picnic to cut wet. Scrape it and it's sludge, cut it and it's fuzz. When dry it's just soft and easily bruised. I use broad sweep gouges for finishing, so I was able to avoid dealing with bruises and most of the fuzziness as well. Keep the face of your cuts narrow and it won't tear and fuzz.
It will warp, but I think you'd almost have to throw it out into the sun or abuse it some other way to get it to crack while drying.
I have turned some willow that was killed by a fire we suppressed. It has a nice dark color but it is very soft. I am not sure if it was coyote willow or not. I would agree with what Michael was saying but the pieces I have to tend to smell and you have to be careful due to the softness of the wood. Good luck