Turning Magnolia?

Re: Turning Magnolia?

TDaniel

>Let it spalt. Stand it on the ends in the shade and keep it moist; should be ready by fall.

Re: Turning Magnolia?

steeltwister

>i turned several bowls, 8 inches to 12 inches from a magnolia tree that was cut down last month. each of the growth rings were outlined with a blue tint. the wood is almost snow white, made some great looking bowls. If I were you I would try to salvage as much of it as I could. minwax colonial pecan stain looks good on this wood.

Re: Turning Magnolia?

Kudzu

>AHHH! :-)

I turned some spalted hackberry once. Beautiful wood. Pan in the butt to get sanded smooth.

Spalted magnolia

Dominic Greco in Richboro PA

>

Oh yeah! Magnolia is fun to turn! Take Terry's advice and let it spalt. You'll be very happy with the results. But don't let it spalt too much. It's punky to start out with!

I've turned spalted magnolia before and found it to be much like turning spalted (soft) maple. Be sure to keep your turning tools nice and sharp. Shear scraping also helps out a lot.

I've included a pic of (2) spalted magnolia bowls I turned in December of last year. The pic shows the bottoms of the bowls so that you get a better idea of the color you get when you let this stuff spalt.

Have fun!

See ya around,

Dominic

Re: Turning Magnolia?

Robert Simmons, Atlanta

>I think it turns pretty well. I especially like the tighter grain in large limbs for things like small lidded boxes. Let it spalt, though.

Robert

Re: Turning Magnolia?

Wolf Kiessling

>I guess I'm gonna have to go agains the crowd and say that magnolia is not one of my favorite woods but I have turned about a half dozen bowls in the 9-12" range. I turned it green, within days of the tree being cut down, and it was so wet the water was just about flying off the lathe. It cracked and checked like crazy while turning but they closed up in a couple of days. The pieces I had seemed to spalt almost overnight. Not an attractive spalt (like shown on Dominic's bowls) but a splotchy, ugly mess. I thought it was some of the ugliest stuff I ever turned out. However, I found that it takes a stain pretty well and when I stained it a dark, reddish brown (cherry, rosewood colors - individually and sometimes mixed together including dark walnut)and finished with danish oil to a semi gloss it came out looking real good. Made the bowls natural edge, very thick walls and they sold as fast as I put them out.

Re: More spaulting

Lyn J. Mangiameli

>OK, here's another example of spaulted Magnolia