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Turning bartlett pear wood

John Torchick

John Torchick

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Cleveland, Tennessee
We have a subdivision, Bartlett Circle, that has those trees lining the main road. They don't take high winds too good. I have stopped and picked up some wood for turning. I have some wood that I have had about a year- will check for MC. Is there anything I need to know for turning this wood? Hard to turn? Oily? Think I will use TruOil for finish or a polyurethane. Never turned it before but want to make a shift knob for my riding mower- plastic is broken. Need to get a 3/8-18 threaded insert for it. Thanks. BTW, there are two piles of wood now. Hmmmm. Where to keep it?
 
turns like cherry, the tree i turned was green, not sure how it will do about a year old

i believe the tree i turned was bradford pear

pyro work looks good with bradford pear
 
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I have turned Bradford Pear, an ornamental that grows to a fairly large size (before collapsing under its own weight ;)). Bartlett pear is generally much smaller in size, but I would expect that its characteristics are similar. Bradford pear is wonderful to turn, nice grain pattern (not ring porous), fairly stable (I have never had a cracking problem with it), gradually turns a nice light brown, and looks good with most types of finishes. Bartlett pear my not possess all of the qualities of Bradford pear, but if it is free wood then it certainly is worth a try.
 
That's right, Bill, free wood! What can be better except to be paid to take it? There is another tree cut up- may be up to about 6-7 inches in diameter maximum. Will stop and look at it.
 
I was looking at my stuff and have some polyurethane. Thought that might look OK- several coats as the mower sits under the deck. Garage is full of WW stuff. Never have too much WW stuff!
 
If you had color, you would see that my face is red!:eek: It is bradford pear- SWMBO corrected me when I told her about the treasure trove of free wood. So.....chalk it up to old age!:p
 
Bradford pear is that perfectly shaped lollipop tree.
many neighborhoods were planted with it in maryland.

Whenever threatening clouds appeared limbs would start falling off. :-)

Not unusual to see trees split right down the middle when two limbs tried to fall off at the same time.
We always had lots of it available.

Generally the wood has little interest and turns an uninteresting shade of brown when dry.
It often turns a gorgeous color of orange when turned wet that last for a week or so just to fool you into turning more until you know!

As John said add color or carve it.

Have fun
 
It turns especially nice when green, and sands equally well. But as it dries rather than big shifting movements as with other woods, Bradford pear developes ripples on the surface.
 
John,
If you have more pretty wood than you can turn, then ....
Doesn't burn very hot. cherry and walnut do better at firewood too.

I'd suggest you turn a small natural edge bowl from it. That is any easy way to see what the wood does for you.
A natural edge bowl with a nice shape or small goblet will old its own with the form.

It also makes great weed pots.
From my experience it holds the bark fairly well.

Al
 
John Torchick said:
So, I have several sticks of firewood?
Click to expand...

No, it is great wood for turning. It does not have really showy grain, but then neither does many other woods. That just means that it is up to you to make the piece look good rather than leaving the hard work up to the wood. :D
 
I love doing demo's with this Bradford pear, it makes you look really good. I did a demo at the Tri State Symposium in Gainesville Ga with a pierced lid, off center bowl, box. It was so smooth and beautiful. Course when I got it home you couldn't pull the lid off because it moved. LOL oh well the wife said just steam it and it'll move some more and you won't have to break it. She's so smart, that's why I married her. The lid came off, but the piece while cute is well....it's a good demo piece to show wood movement. I still like turning it.
 
Shift knobs

"Never turned it before but want to make a shift knob for my riding mower- plastic is broken. Need to get a 3/8-18 threaded insert for it."

I've turned a number of shift knobs. I have made threaded inserts by drilling and tapping a piece of larger diameter bolt, say 3/8x16 tapped into a piece of 1/2-13, but like others find this is not necessary as most reasonably tough wood will hold threads fine for shifter purposes. For finishing I thread a bolt into the ready-to-finish knob to act as a handle then dip them in a can of polyurethane. After most of the material has dripped off the end (30 seconds or so) I turn them over clamp a locking plier on the bolt and set them on a piece of wax paper to let the last drip come off the threaded end and then dry. Makes for a very smooth, shiny and tough finish. Any sag off the lower end is either hidden by the installation or can be easily sanded off to invisibility.
have fun!
 
Patrick, I was looking at Lowe's for a threaded insert, 3/8-16. One was $1.63!!!! I got a sample of a hex nut and compared the lengths of the two. I'm going to drill the hole a bit undersize and glue three hex nuts in the knob and screw it on the gearshift shaft.
I'm so cheap, they have my picture next to the word in the dictionary!:D
 
bradford pear

I have turned quite a bit of this as it is very suseptible to our Kansas winds. Turned green and dried it turns and finishes quite well. Natural edge bowls seem to be the most interesting and the bark holds well. D Biggs
 
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