Practice wood

[Hollyhavenwoodturning]

So then all...

As a newby to woodturning what wood or where can you source wood to practice with and no doubt get it wrong and waste?

Can you use for example old furniture pieces to practice with? Or kiln dried wood ?

[Bryan Milham]

Old furniture, yes. Old table legs are great for things like candlesticks or general spindle turning.

Don't disregard DIY Shed softwoods. 47mm x 47mm square or any larger squares are usable. It's cheap and great for making mistakes on while learning.

Straight branch wood is also good, but stick to smaller diameters until you are happy turning them.

Of course the best advice we can offer is join a club,get to know some other turners and if possible, do a day with a professional turner, It will save you years of making mistakes.

[Hollyhavenwoodturning]

Thanks....yep have joined a Club and have taken some lessons... so doing something right 😀

I have saved some bed legs and some off cuts from building the workshop area...and I was hoping to use these to practice on... so looks like that's a possibility...

[fuzzyturns]

Go to yell.com and find the dozen tree surgeons closest to you. Email them and ask whether they'd be willing to talk to you about some of the wood they have going into wood turning. This is what I did, and I had 2 of them reply positively, one is now a good friend and provides about 60% of my wood.

Obviously this wood is all green, so you will need to cut it into blanks, seal it and store it, which means you need some space on the property. I used to have a large stack in the garden, on top of some old concrete slabs, and covered with a tarpaulin. This does take some time, but there are several rewards: it's very cheap. The tree surgeons should not charge you more than they would get for firewood (since they have less work to do). Plus: you get exactly the blanks that you want (instead of having to work with given sizes). And you can specifically select for grain patters, knots, burrs and other interesting features.

[bodrighywood]

Old rolling pins preferably solid not with handles that turn as they have a hole through the middle, boot sales you can often find old furniture, lold  schol and church chairs sometimes have elm seats that make good platters, only limitations are your imagination.#

Pete

[seventhdevil]

your location might help as there may be some one near you who has some timber they are happy for you too use.

[Derwent Woodturning club]

Old furniture and household fixtures are a good source of free wood but watch out for 'fittings' - screws, nails, staples etc, as it is very annoying when your turning tool hits anything like that. Have a good visual look at the wood; treat any hole with suspicion, and a magnet will find anything near the surface.