Anyone ever turn palmetto?

[gesiak]

I am planning on making a couple of pens as gifts and was thinking of using palmetto (aka: sabal palm or cabbage palm.) Does anyone have any experience with this wood? :icon_scra Also, if it is turnable do you know of a source for it?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

John

 

[DaveO]

I have turned Black Palm, and it's rather splintery. Palm being a grass is very different than wood. It is a lot like a bunch of drinking straws all bundled together. I have not seen a commercial source for Sabal Palm. You always could go to S. Carolina and find a downed tree :dontknow:

Dave

 

[gesiak]

Dave; I knew I could count on you to answer promptly and expertly.:icon_thum Would stabilizing it with CA help?

I also heard it can dull a chainsaw blade quickly. I may rethink using it and go with something different.

Thanks for your quick reply.

John

 

[TracyP]

I turned a piece of black palm last weekend, it was a nightmare trying to keep it from splintering. I got it from Woodcraft and it had been waxed heavily. The super glue helped a little but not a lot.

 

[Nice Figures]

Hi John,
Sharon and I live on the coast of NC and have turned commercially available red palm and black palm. The customers love it but it isn't the most fun material to turn. It's like turning a porcupine...you'll be covered with splintery (?) material. But it does look nice so we thought we'd see if we could find some of the locally available sabal palm or cabbage palm to experiment with. So we went to a nursery that sells palms and asked if they had any dead ones that we could cut up....the owner looked at us like we were crazy but told us we were welcome to cut up any of the dead trees that he had.....we found a nice big one and went at it with the chain saw....it was like cutting pampas grass, a long stringy, mess. We didn't have any luck with finding anything even remotely turnable and gave up.....maybe it was it was still "green" or maybe just the wrong variety but it was a mess and the nursery owner just smiled.....Any one else have any luck with it????

Paula

 

[gesiak]

Hi John,
Sharon and I live on the coast of NC and have turned commercially available red palm and black palm. The customers love it but it isn't the most fun material to turn. It's like turning a porcupine...you'll be covered with splintery (?) material. But it does look nice so we thought we'd see if we could find some of the locally available sabal palm or cabbage palm to experiment with. So we went to a nursery that sells palms and asked if they had any dead ones that we could cut up....the owner looked at us like we were crazy but told us we were welcome to cut up any of the dead trees that he had.....we found a nice big one and went at it with the chain saw....it was like cutting pampas grass, a long stringy, mess. We didn't have any luck with finding anything even remotely turnable and gave up.....maybe it was it was still "green" or maybe just the wrong variety but it was a mess and the nursery owner just smiled.....Any one else have any luck with it????

Paula

Thanks for the reply Paula..... I think I will put that idea to rest. :wink_smil I am not sure that I am up to taking on what you describe, since I have only been turning a few months. :embaresse I got a couple of gift cards for Woodcraft, so I think I may pick up a red or black palm blank when I use them and try it.

Wont be today as, after 1 1/2 feet of snow, subzero temperatures, the Chicago weather has changed againwe now are in the 60's, snow is melting and it has been raining since last night. So I am watching the creek and readying the sump pumps.

John