What is your favorite wood to build with? And to mill?

[dustytools]

I guess mine would have to be Eastern Red Cedar. It turns and finishes nicely. I have recently used it to put a new bottom in my small trailer that I move my water tank around with and I made a nice bottom and box for my three point carry-all. It smells nice too!!

 

[SDB777]

Favorite wood from the other day!

Makes for a nice writing instrument!

Scott B

 

[john taliaferro]

The weekends log is a 48 inch sycamore . I'll post pictures on Sunday or Monday.

I'll mill just about any log that's Free and Big enough to make sense.

Walnut, Ash, Butternut, Elm, Cherry and Maple

yep free and big

 

[peterrum]

I don't have much of a choice where I am but tight grained fir is right at the top. Some I have been able to get with 40 rings/inch, nice stuff. I have also started doing some Juniper and like it in the shop because it makes it smell like a mouse cage.

 

[redoakneck]

Osage orange- because I like to sharpen chains.

Black Walnut with extra poison ivy...because I like to itch when I sharpen

 

[hautions11]

Fovorite

Ash with friends helping. I love to make things from Walnut but do like to mill ash.

 

[cedarman]

red oak, cherry, and heart pine

 

[JS929]

So far the southeastern species that I've milled have been red oak, white oak, pin oak, overcup oak, red maple, eastern red cedar, american black cherry ( a big one!), elm, hickory, cucumber tree, tulip poplar, and yellow pine. The cherry has been my favorite so far. The smell is amazing, and it mills rather easily. The oaks and hickory seem to slow down the milling with my 660 a little bit.

Here are some pics of figured black cherry, spalted red maple, tulip poplar eastern red cedar and elm.

 

[SDB777]

FREE!


Scott (I like all of them) B

 

[sixteenacrewood]

I'm gonna feel a bit odd for saying this, but.

I like any twisted tortured gothic knarled log I can get for free!

walnut, cherry, sycamore, sweetgum, red gum, all found a good use in my shop.

I have tons of short leaf pine I am about to start milling. This will be my first time milling pine!

So I think rather than "whats my favorite" its what am I going to mill first!

 

[lone wolf]

 

[CR888]

l don't think the lone wolf will have trouble staying warm during the cold winter. Nice slabs and wood stack!

 

[lone wolf]

l don't think the lone wolf will have trouble staying warm during the cold winter. Nice slabs and wood stack!

 

[lone wolf]

 

[steve easy]

I like any twisted tortured gothic knarled log I can get for free!

Me too, always milling the ugly ones no one else will. Macrocarpa is the most common, favourite is matai.
One matai tree, been on ground for about 50 years.

 

[mad murdock]

I like building outdoor furniture, timbers and framing lumber out of Douglas Fir. WRC for the siding. I like how they both mill. The WRC for some reason has a gritty www to it that will dull the chain a little quicker, though it mills faster than the fir. I am looking forward to some projects this year that I want to incorporate maple and arbutus, so I will get to kill some big leaf Maple, madrone and hopefully a few sticks of red alder too.

 

[pastryguyhawaii]

View attachment 403341

Beautiful table!

 

[Mike Van]

Basswood has to be the only wood smell I don't care for - Black locust, fresh cut has a sour smell right under the bark, but when the slabs are dry burning in the stove, it smells really good. Hemlock has to be my favorite saw log for framing lumber, cherry for furniture type. The black locust has to be my least favorite to saw, hard as a stone, a fine dust that gets into everything. Money maker though, I've sold it for sills, trailer decks, posts & raised beds.

 

[KiwiBro]

Me too, always milling the ugly ones no one else will. Macrocarpa is the most common, favourite is matai.View attachment 403521
One matai tree, been on ground for about 50 years.

Mills like butter, smells like money ;-)

We are blessed in NZ to have some utterly wonderful native timbers.

Looking forward to the pics of the matai opened up, and also that big totara. That said, Kauri is top of my list for the combo of milling to drying to furniture. Rimu I like best for furniture if I don't have to mill or work with it, and if I did have to I'd much rather use Matai. Totara top of my ease of use list but a bugger to season properly and I am not a fan of the way even the deepest pink/crimson heart can bleach over time, but boy oh boy it can have some epic figure. Puriri if you want the furniture to survive everything but a nuclear attack and love sharpening tools and blades more often than not. Kahikatea can be nice to take from log through to furniture. Rewarewa rewards the careful and patient but is a bit too in your face for me. Tawa I just don't understand the hype.

Rimu:


Totara:

 

[agrams]

probably my favorite overall wood to work with is mesquite. Bugs can be a real pain, but it has some of the most unique grain character around, and you could throw green slabs in a pile and they would dry without warping or cracking. I wish I had more experience with walnut, but around here it is pecan, mesquite, oak, the occasional ash, and then random stuff... Heaven help my bank account If I can ever find a place to buy some walnut logs at reasonable prices....

From this:

to this:

plus, the oddball pieces that aren't worth milling can be turned in to some really unique bowls: