Each vessel I turn is unique, because each tree, each limb, is unique, and I approach the wood as such—an expression of a singular life. Some of the wood I turn is far removed from its source—cut, seasoned, shipped, and sold. Other wood comes from where I live, harvested fresh from a downed tree or limb, or salvaged from the scrap pile. Whatever the source, for me the wood is treasure: beauty, energy, history; a memory of earth, water, sky, preserved in its cells.

Listed below are some of the woods I turn. I very much enjoy trying new types of wood. I turn no threatened or endangered species of wood, and all of my purchased wood comes from businesses committed to supporting sustained forestry practices.

• African mahogany: from West Africa; a brittle, fibrous, deep orange wood, with light orange or sometimes rich brown streaks; difficult to turn and sand
• apricot: from the domestic fruit tree; the color of the wood is resembles the color of the fruit
• ash: mostly a native-grown Arizona species; also some white ash
• aspen: from Nevada/Great Basin National Park
• black limba: from West Africa; light brown with black streaks; Terminalia superba
• bocote: South American
• boire: a very hard African wood
• Bolivian rosewood: not an actual rosewood; from a Brazilian and Bolivian tree that resembles rosewood but is harder and lighter in color; a.k.a. pau ferro or morado
• box elder: a North American maple with white wood that resembles boxwood; known for its red staining, commonly atributed to fungus or the box elder bug, but more likely caused by the tree’s natural reaction to being wounded; Acer negundo
• Brazilian satinwood: see yellowheart
• Brazilian tulipwood: highly valued dense wood with rich figure; red-streaked heartwood
• bubinga: an African wood (from Cameroon, Gabon, West Africa); light red with purple streaks; Guibourtia tessmannii
• Burmese rosewood: orange with dark purplish oxidation
• canarywood: a common name used for a number of species; typically yellowish with streaks of orange red and even white and black
• carob: locally grown; a rich red wood with whitish sapwood
• chakte kok: see redheart
• cherry: from the domestic fruit tree
• cocobolo: tropical hardwood from Central America with a dense, oily, orange or reddish-brown heartwood with dark streaks
• cottonwood: Populus fremontii, native to Arizona; a very soft hardwood not usually used in turning; valued by Native Americans (and used to make kachinas) because of the tree’s association with water; mine was a gift from the universe, from a heavily spalted dead tree cut down in my apartment complex just days after I first learned to turn
• eucalyptus: various locally grown species; drought-stressed trees yield wood with many voids
• grevillea: from Australia; a.k.a. silky oak; sometimes called lacewood, but the heartwood is lighter in color than what is more commonly known as lacewood in the U.S. (see below); the lacelike figure is created by rays bisecting the growth rings; Grevillea robusta
• holly: prized for its whiteness
• honey locust: locally grown
• ironwood: a Sonoran Desert native; very dense, dark brown heartwood with yellow sapwood; Olneya tesota
• jatoba: a.k.a. Brazilian cherry; a dense, richly grained and colored wood; Hymenaea courbaril
• lacewood: from South America; pink to reddish brown; the lacelike figure is created by rays bisecting the growth rings; Panopsis rubellens
• maple, ambrosia: the rich coloration is caused by infestation by the ambrosia beetle, a wood-boring beetle that cultivates a fungus in the wood for food
• maple, birdseye: has figure resembling birds’ eyes
• maple, quilted: from the Pacific Northwest; has figure resembling quilting; common in big-leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum)
• maple, red: from the eastern U.S., Canada; Acer rubrum
• maple, soft: from the eastern U.S., Canada; a.k.a. silver maple; Acer saccharinum
• maple, hard: from the northeastern U.S., Canada; a.k.a. rock maple, sugar maple; Acer saccharum
• mesquite: various local species, chiefly honey mesquite; rich, dark, reddish to purplish brown heartwood with yellow sapwood; genus Prosopis
• mesquite, Chilean: a locally grown, fast-growing imported species, with a lighter heartwood than native mesquites, often with pinkish tones
• muhuhu: an African wood with wonderful undertones of green; fragrant when turned; Brachylaena hutchinsii
• nanchi: a Mexican fruitwood; reddish brown
• oak: red or white; a very hard, brittle wood that is difficult to turn
• olive: locally grown; fragrant when turned
• osage orange: from the U.S. Midwest; a deep orange-yellow wood that inevitably browns with age
• paduak: African; a deep orange wood that turns dark russet brown when oxidized; Pterocarpus soyauxii
• pear: one of my favorite woods; a pale wood with pink tones; mine comes from the wood dump in Philadelphia
• peroba rosa: South American; pink to red in color; turns a soft mustard yellow when oxidized; Aspidosperma peroba
• purpleheart: South American; purple; turns dark brown when oxidized; Peltogyne spp.
• redheart: a.k.a. chakte kok (Sickingia salvadorensis); from Central America and northern South America; a fine-grained, reddish to dark red to brown wood that fades quickly in sunlight and ages to a yellow-brown; also Erythroxylon spp.
• sabicu: a mahogany-like Mexican wood; Lysiloma sabicu
• sapele (su pee’ lee): African (from the Ivory Coast, Nigeria); rich reddish brown with golden ribbon highlights; Entandrophragma cylindricum
• shedua: an African wood; dark brown with dark yellow to greenish highlights and black stripes; Guibourtia arnoldiana
• sinker cypress (a.k.a. swamp cypress): from Louisiana; bald cypress that “has been buried underwater in river bottoms and bogs for many, many years. These trees are usually very old growth trees with very tight growth rings. These sunken logs absorb the minerals from the mud and water and take on a greenish tint that is quite striking and highly sought after for wall paneling and case goods of all types”. For more information, see Krantz Recovered Woods.
• walnut: genus Juglans, usually English walnut (J. regia) or black walnut (J. nigra)
• walnut, claro: from California; prized for its figure and rich color; Juglans hindsii, used as the rootstock for grafts of English walnut
• wenge: a coarse African wood; dark brown with black veins; Millettia laurentii
• yellowheart: a.k.a. Brazilian satinwood; buttery yellow and satin smooth
• zebrawood: African (West Africa); gold with dark brown streaks; Microberlinia brazzavillensis

 

Some terms that can be applied to many kinds of wood:

• burl: a cluster of chaotic growth on the side of a tree
• cambium layer: the layer of actively dividing cells between the bark and the wood that is responsible for the secondary growth of stems and roots
• chatoyance: gemlike luster; wood grain pattern that appears to shimmer or undulate with light, as if seen through water
• curl: rippled or wavy grain pattern, usually without notable chatoyance
• fiddleback: rippled or wavy grain pattern, usually quite chatoyant; named so because violin makers sought to use such figure in making the backs of fiddles; caused by the tree’s reaction to stresses of weight from branches and movement from wind
• figure: pleasing patterns of growth in the wood grain
• spalting: discoloration, usually black, caused by fungus