Easiest Wood to Turn as a Beginner (& Stuff To Avoid)


Easiest wood to turn as a beginner

As a beginner woodturner, you must be wondering about the type you should use. I am personally new to woodturning and have been doing a ton of research on this topic.

The easiest species of wood to turn are pine and cherry. They are soft and easy to shape on the wood lathe and should be used by anyone who is trying to learn how to turn wood. When turning wood, you want to choose softwoods at the beginning to reduce the complexity of turning wood and allow you as a beginner to learn. Let’s dive a bit deeper into what other wood species are easy to turn.

What are the easiest wood species to turn?

Pine

During my research, every source I turned to mentioned pine as the first wood you should turn as a beginner. It is soft, easy to turn and will not give you a lot of challenges during turning. It does not have a lot of difficult knots is bound to give you a good finish if you have sharp tools. The other thing that makes it a great wood for turning for beginners is that it is abundant and therefore not expensive. You want to avoid using expensive wood as a beginner since you are likely to mess it up. 

Other Popular species

If you don’t have pine, the following species are also easy to turn and will give you an easier time than most other species when turning.

  • Cherry
  • Soft Maple
  • Poplar
  • Padauk
  • Holly 
  • Maple
  • Alder

What makes a piece of wood easy to turn?

To determine if a piece of wood will be hard to turn, use some of the criteria below

  1. How hard it is: Harder wood is more difficult to turn since its denser and you may get frustrated from the amount of wear you get on your tools and the potential of getting a grab that will ruin your piece.
  2. Rot and dirt: Rot and dirt dull the tools faster and if the rot has reached where the wood is being held by the woodchuck, it will be dangerous to turn that kind of wood because it may dislodge from the wood lathe and cause an injury. 
  3. Freshly cut or hardened: Freshly cut wood turns much easier than when it’s completely dry. If you are doing some practice rounds, you will want to use easy to work with wood and wet wood is perfect for this.
  4. Knots on the wood:  A lot of knots on wood is a bad indication when you are turning. This is because there are going to be a lot of places that are not easy for the tool to cut and these are bound to result to tool grabs
  5. Grain direction: Depending on what you are turning, you want the grain either to run across the lathe from headstock to tailstock.   Or parallel grain direction if its a bowl. Having grain that is all over the place will mean that the wood may crack at t the grain.

What makes a piece of wood hard to turn?

  1. Lots of Knots: wood that has lots of knots will be more tricky to turn for a beginner since you are likely to have tool catches (where your lathe tool gets grabbed by the wood and causes wood damage and may cause injury). 
  2. Hardwood: Hardwoods dull tools quickly and need skill to be able to turn them well. Some types of wood have complicated grain structures that make it more difficult to turn well.
  3. Rotten or uneven wood: Wood that is rotten in some places and has cracks is not good for a beginner. The reason for this is that you may get injured easily if this piece of wood breaks off from the lathe at high speeds.
  4. Wrapped grain direction:  The direction of the grain on the wood you are working on is a critical part of turning wood successfully.  Grain that is running diagonally may present issues when turning and may even break off while turning.

How to choose a piece of wood to turn

I found this interesting woodturning video that talks about how to choose wood for turning and you can use it to give you guidance as a beginner on the kinds of wood you should use for your projects.

Fundamental #1; Video 4: Grain Direction Curly & Burl Wood from SB Tools on Vimeo.

Wood to avoid as a beginner

  1. Wood with Knots: wood with knots will give you a hard time and you may end up getting bad results and possibly hating woodturning since it is more difficult to get good results with this kind of wood.
  2. Expensive wood: You are bound to make a lot of mistakes as you learn and you will end up spending a lot of money on wood that may not create very nice pieces due to your skill level I would advise that you find scrap wood or firewood logs when practicing. It will not look very elegant but you will not lose money learning how to turn.
  3. Large pieces: As a beginner, you will need to avoid large pieces since before you get used to turning smaller pieces. The reason for this is the fact that you may expose yourself to danger when turning a large piece of wood by making beginner mistakes that may result in the wood getting dislodged from the lathe when you are turning. The damage will be less if the piece you are turning is small and light.
  4. Rotten Wood: This has the same problems as turning wood with knots. This is because your wood may break off the lathe easily and result in an injury if you do not know exactly what you are doing. 
  5. Bowls: Turning bowls is not very easy The fact that the lathe will not have two points of contact for most of the turning process means that, if you are new to woodturning, you may end up making a move that dislodges your wood from the lathe. If it is spinning at a high speed, you may end up sustaining an injury when the bowl hits you.

Antony Njoroge

I love working with my hands. From when I was a little boy, I loved taking stuff apart and trying to put them back together (Most of which were unsuccessful and would only get me in trouble). This passion for working with my hands gnaws at me constantly and I enjoy starting new hobbies and learning something new and challenging. I feel a deep sense of fulfillment when working on something creative and that is why I started this Blog. It is a way for me to experiment with several things that I have always admired (like woodworking, epoxy projects) and share my experiences and lessons along the way.

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