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Welcome to the third portion of our beginner's guide to wood selection! In this tutorial, we will be answering some questions that you more advanced turners ask us on a regular basis. Let's begin!
What wood is the most popular selection amongst our customers?
Cherry. By far, most turners prefer to work with cherry. It is extremely easy to turn, dries with few problems, smells wonderful, and has excellent grain and color.
What is our best selling wood?
Our best seller is ambrosia maple, with black walnut at a close second. Ambrosia maple is popular because of the many streaks of color that stand out against a bright yellowish-white background (the sapwood). Black walnut is sought after for it's dark brown appearance. Both are moderately priced and are a good value for the money.
What wood contains the best range of colors in a single piece?
Red gum. Red gum has MANY different colors throughout each piece. Colors range from orange, to reddish-brown, to yellow, blue-gray, black, and occasionally dark green. Absolutely fantastic material. Take a look at our gallery page (link at top of page) for some finished examples.
I want to buy some of your best looking material...where should I start?
Start by looking at our list of "Blanks Available in Limited Quantities" on our home page. These are typically the most unusual and best looking pieces that will only be available for a limited time.
What woods are our personal favorites?
There are so many choices! Other than the ones we've already mentioned in this tutorial, I would have to say that mulberry, magnolia and bradford pear are at the top of this list (amongst the woods we normally can keep in stock). Mulberry is a wonderful bright yellow color and takes a very high polish when finished. Magnolia is a pleasure to turn. It has wonderful contrast between the dark black and light yellow growth rings of the tree. Bradford pear turns very easily, is a light pinkish-orange color, and polishes very well. All are some excellent choices which get overlooked very often by our customers!
For further wood selection tutorials, look below.
To return to the full index of tutorials, click here!
Beginner's Guide to Wood Selection
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