Catalpa or Catawba

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
J

jtate

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Messages
781
Location
Brentwood, TN, USA.
Ever turned any? Ever turned pens from it?

Any thoughts on its quality for turning?

There's a thoroughly dry tree my Dad cut some pieces from for me.

I can get more.

And I'll share!

Julia
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Sometime thoroughly dry is too dry and you make dust. I'd do a web search. I usually find a wood site listing and get all the info I need from there.
 
Julia, I have turned both pens and bowls from catalpa and had no problems turning it,(it was dry) it had been on the ground for some time, it had been downed from storm damage. The bowls was from a crotch piece which had some very striking grain patterns. The pens were rather plain, not all that interesting. It was one of the easiest wood species I know of to turn.
 
I've turned Catalpa many times, it is light but solid. I like the chatoyance of angle cut catalpa. The overall color is green/yellow and it is an excellant wood to turn.

A couple interesting features of catalpa is that it is extremely weather resistant. I know a chain saw artists who makes big pieces that are typically left out in the weather, he has a strong preference for catalpa (he also has plenty of pen blank size scraps). It is also one of the very best nail holding woods, the nail goes in easy but by the next day it can't be pulled without destroying the wood. I made some bee hives out of catalpa, they have been outside in the weather for 15-20 years and are as solid as the day they were built.
 
Originally posted by jtate

Ever turned any? Ever turned pens from it?

Any thoughts on its quality for turning?

There's a thoroughly dry tree my Dad cut some pieces from for me.

I can get more.

And I'll share!

Julia
Click to expand...

I made a peppermill from catalpa. It's pretty light weight wood, and a fairly non-descript grain pattern. I colored my mill so accent the grain a little better.. turns easy and makes lots of dust. Also sands okay, but it pretty open grained on the wood.
Here is picture of the mill..
200832413286_34-277.jpg
 
Johnnie, I'll take you up on that! The bowl I turned from it last night is very prety. Nice chatoyance. Dusty in the sanding phase only - not dry-rotted at all.

Interestingly, while turning it, the wood smelled like thewood-smoke I remember from the tobacco-firing barns of my childhood. I don't klnow if it's dark-fried burley or what but it's very familiar.

I'll be harvesting more of this!

Julia
 
Wow ... this thread brought back memories. I'm a country boy from Western Pennsylvania. There was a big old catalpa tree down the road. A few of us worldly ten-year olds had heard that the Indians used to smoke those long beanpods that grew on the catalpa tree. One night we decided to give them a try. If I remember correctly, we had a pretty hard time keeping them lit.
 
Those darn catalpa beans would never stay lit, I sure tired often enough. Green and just off the tree they would not burn at all, we would try to dry them out but never could find a just the right amount of drying out to get them just right to smoke, but you could get a few puffs.

I wonder if those beans could be stabilized and turned?

Catalpa worms are great catfish bait by the way.
 
The first thing I ever turned was catalpa, and that catalpa was DRY. It made so much dust, that after the project, I didn't turn anymore for 14 years - when I started turning pens. It was and is beautiful wood with chatoyance as mentioned above. If it is dry, use a mask, a smock and goggles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom