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

[deeker]

I like to run Spruce/pine/juniper/elm/cottonwood/box elder through my NorwoodLM2000 and have lots of uses for each of the woods listed.

Other favorites are walnut/cherry/pear/apricot.

What do you guys like to mill and build with?

Kevin

 

[SDB777]

Geographics will be interesting here....

From the south, so we have a lot of Eastern Red Cedar growing everywhere.....so that would be juniper for me!



Scott

 

[dbol]

White oak and walnut right now.
But, that will change with my next project.

 

[huskymac]

deeker

What do you use the Cottonwood for, and how well does it take to machining?

I have only been milling a couple of years now but the farm where I get my firewood has a lot of dead and dieing Ash, so I have been stocking up on it. I mill mostly to keep a supply of wood for my other hobby, cabinet and furniture building. The Ash works very well and the color and grain are striking with nothing more than a clear coat.

I really like the Eastern Red Cedar as well, but I have only been lucky enough to find one that was large enough to mill. Same story with Walnut and Red Oak.

 

[Timberframed]

Hemlock seems to work well in a lot of applications although the knots appear to be the hardest of any.

 

[djones]

I prefer free wood, my last 2 or 3 projects were completed with wood that was thrown out at my last employers discard bin. They threw out enough wood to build my 10 x 12 chicken koop, completely cover the rebuild in my living room, and I still have enough left over to redo the leanto shed on my barn. Over the years they have thrown out enough wood to build dozens of small homes or a couple of castles. Luckily I was stationed close to the dump site and always had a saw in the back of the truck.

 

[betterbuilt]

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

 

[brookpederson]

Love__ Red cedar, white cedar, Red elm, cherry, Black walnut, butternut, catalpa, bass wood, maple "soft or hard", red and white pines, mullberry, white birch.

:msp_confused: Ok___ Ash, elm "american ", hackberry, spruce,red oak, osage orange river birch.


:msp_mad: Hate____ cottonwood, locust, piss elm, bur oak, poplars, little leaf linden.

Notice that most of my favorites are light and stable woods.

 

[oldsaw]

Kind of with brook here. I live milling and working with walnut, cherry, butternut, maple, and the rest of his list. But I put ash and oak in the "more than okay" file. They can be a bit troublesome, but in the end, they aren't that bad if you follow their rules. Osage orange, not so much luck there. That moves down a notch.

But, like betterbuilt says, I'll mill anything that is big enough, at least once, and "big enough" is about an 8' run of a 15" or larger log...depending on species. I'll go smaller on some.

Going to do some serious milling this year. Been too long.

 

[deeker]

What do you use the Cottonwood for, and how well does it take to machining?

I have only been milling a couple of years now but the farm where I get my firewood has a lot of dead and dieing Ash, so I have been stocking up on it. I mill mostly to keep a supply of wood for my other hobby, cabinet and furniture building. The Ash works very well and the color and grain are striking with nothing more than a clear coat.

I really like the Eastern Red Cedar as well, but I have only been lucky enough to find one that was large enough to mill. Same story with Walnut and Red Oak.

The cottonwood has some very nice looking grains and almost burls in it. Table tops for the better looking stuff.

Makes fantastic trailer decking.

Works great for horse stalls....they won't chew it, twice.

Works for shed siding...must be protected from rain or direct water...but lasts a long time.

It is very light when dried and flexible....hard to nail....pre drilling is required.

Kevin

 

[sachsmo]

I have not did alot of milling, but most has been Oak, red and white.

It is pretty slow going, and the knots will slow you down quite a bit.

I see someone is milling a big Sycamore, I have milled a small twisted one with great spalting towards the bottom. It has some crazy speckling too.

I wish I had my mill when I dropped this one a few years back, here's a pic of a round we noodled.

After seeing how nice that wood looked, I built my first mill attachment. Sure don't want to buck up nothing this nice again.

 

[huskymac]

deeker

Thanks , I had heard of trailer and barn decking. I just assumed that the way it shreds in a splitter it would make planning and sanding a nightmare.

So is it the same stringy dental floss quality that keeps the horses from coming back?:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My by far, most fav project/fine furniture wood is american bik. cherry! I was given these cherry logs,

And even though they aren't huge,

I still got some nice lumber out of them,

Some of it was nicely figured too,

BUT, for construction lumber, i like to mill aspen poplar.

Rob

 

[MR4WD]

Western Red Cedar. I've milled a bit of Douglas Fir, but I've only really built 8x8 cant's for a 10x30 firewood shed and two days ago I built 2 13' 8x8 gate posts.

This summer I'd like to try some Hemlock or more Fir, but I don't have a LOT of stuff I need to make around here.

Maybe more some more Cedar for a parking shed for my trailer?

I use untreated Cedar poles salvaged from work; Real nice tight ringed old growth pulled out of the forest over 70 years ago and been standing in the air drying out since. It's stable and takes no drying time and doesn't move around at all after milling.

 

[pwoller]

Walnut.

I like to roll around in the chocolate colored chips.

Oh and it dries nice and finishes very well.

 

[Daninvan]

I think my favourite woods to mill up are the ones that smell nice. Yellow cedar, Port Orford cedar, Monterey cypress, catalpa, deodar, cherry are ones that I like.

To build with, I mainly (try to) build furniture, cabinets, etc. so I prefer interesting hardwoods that play well with hand tools. Catalpa is up there, so is elm (mostly stinks tho), walnut, cherry, oak, maple, fruitwoods.

My neighbour and I have to repair the fence that separates our properties this summer, so I am keeping my eyes open for some red cedar to mill up into a half dozen 4x4 posts.

 

[mikeb1079]

i'm just a beginning woodworker but i'll side with sawyer rob. air dryed black cherry is a really nice wood to work, both with hand and power tools. plus it smells nice.
black walnut is an awfully close second. still waiting to work on the honey locust and mulberry i've got in the pile.

 

[Walnut33]

I am still yet to find a wood that planes and machines better than Black Walnut. It almost seems that its "social value" will never vanish, just because of how much consumers love it. It moves very little when drying, even with some of the big slabs. But in the end, every wood can be found looking better than any other if you just build the right thing with it.:msp_biggrin:

 

[BlueRider]

Its interesting how opinions of favorite woods can be formed and changed over time. The first time I milled an elm I was not particularly fond of the smell. Each time I use elm for a piece of furniture I like it more and more. While the smell of freshly milled elm is stil not one of my favorite smells I find it much less objectionable now.

If I could I would use nothing but port orford cedar. Unfortunately it is not hard enough for most furniture but it dies plane and carve nicely and I would love to make some doors for my house with it. My second favorite is probably sugar pine which is even less of a good choice for furniture, even though I have used it to make two really spectacular cabinets.

Continuing with the favorite smells theme I really enjoy working with montery cypress but it is one of my least favorite woods to mill because of how quickly it dulls a chain and how the saw dust gunks up a chan quicker than any other wood.

I am very allergic to wanut. I once had a severe reaction while milling it to the point that it gave me what looked like secomd degree chemical burns on my forearms. Even so it is hard not to be enamored with how well it works. It planes and machines well and is a dream to carve. When it is highly figured there are few woods that are more stricking and it seems to never go out of style. It is easy on chains when milling and considering how hard it is, it is relatively easy to mill

Chinese elm is another favorite of mine. It lacks the barn yard smell of the other elms and instead has a spicy peppery scent. when milling it can be almost over powering in its spiciness, but it tones down a bit and has a nice peppery smell when dry. It's color and figure are nothing special but it makes the best handles, mallets, and rolling pins.

 

[northwest coast]

it goes by a couple different names, scientifically, chamycyparis nootkatensis, but whatever you want to call it, yellow cedar is my favourite to mill and work with.

tight grain, 36" wide, clear slabs. i've traded some to first nations carvers and made a couple small projects but i would like to start selling doors and tables made from it. anyone interested ?