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Special Wood by Chris Zema
The various woods that I use in my woodturning
work are mainly north american hardwoods,
chiefly the burls from those woods. Various
maple woods are some of my favorites,
e.g. sugar maple, swamp maple, red maple,
curly maple, quilted maple, western big
leaf maple, bird's-eye maple to name a
few. All the maples have beautiful burls,
and I believe that no two are alike.
From the maple burls I make small wooden
hollow forms, turned
wood bowls, natural-edge pieces, and
wooden
vases.
I also use black walnut ( plain and burl),
which is beautiful for wood turning, and
this is suitable for wooden
platters, wooden
vases and hollow forms. This dark
wood contrasts beautifully with turquoise
which I use to inlay some of the pieces.
Another wood which I like for wood turning
is cherry (plain and burl). There is a
type of cherry called flame cherry, which
is harder than regular cherry, and has
beautiful, wavy, figured grain. It is
more expensive than regular cherry. I
make wooden
bowls and hollow
forms from this wood.
Another wood I use is beech burl. It is
rather hard to find, I believe because
beech trees are succumbing to disease
and are becoming endangered. This wood
turns very well as it has straight and
lateral grain. It is excellent for wooden
bowls.
Among the different oaks I think the red
oak burl is possibly the most beautiful
because it features a very intricate grain
pattern. I bought the largest red oak
burl is this area, weighing 8,000 lbs.
It stood taller than me, and was bigger
than the cab on a pick-up truck. I made
many wooden
hollow forms and some wooden
vases from this burl over a period
of four years. White oak burl is also
very nice.
Box Elder burl can be beautiful, especially
if it has the red or pink coloring that
sometimes swirls throughout the wood.
I buy Sequoia burls from the West Coast.
These are root burls.They have lovely
grain pattern - bird's-eye and lace being
the main ones. These burls have been in
the ground for forty of fifty years (the
trees having been cut that long ago),
and they do not rot. I make south-western
style wooden vessels from this wood, and
often inlay them with turquoise, following
the natural separations in the wood wherever
possible.
Manzanita is a north-western wood. It
is a fairly small, shrubby tree, which
makes an irregularly-shaped burl beneath
the ground, from which the roots emerge.
These burls grow around lava rock and
hard soil, which become encapsulated in
the wood. This makes for hard wood turning,
as the rock and hard soil dulls the tools
and have to be dug out of the piece as
I am working on it. This however, results
in unusual and sometimes very beautiful
voids and openings in the wood which are
incorporated in the item I am turning.
Manzanita is very lovely for turning natural-edge
wooden bowls and hollow forms.
Buckeye burl from the west is another
good wood for turning. It is a root burl.
It can become very black with creamy streaks.
It makes beautiful wooden hollow forms
and wooden vases.
I like manzanita burl, also from the west
coast. It is a root burl. This wood is
wonderful for turning natural-edge wooden
bowls. It has a lovely, rich red color
and attractive grain pattern. It is good
for turning wooden hollow forms also.
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