Every now and then I get a pleasant surprise when I turn wood. The picture at the left is one of them.Not quite a year ago I was given some Bald Cypress to turn. My one and only previous experience with Cypress was not that good. It a very soft wood and I was not too impress with it for use as a turning. When I got the cypress it had just been cut so I just seal the ends with sealer and left it to dry in my shop. Yesterday I decided to test it to see how much moisture was still in it. The meter show 7%. I was surprised it was that dry and still even more surpise that the cracking was not nearly as bad as I had expected that it would be.
So there was nothing to do except that I had to see how it would the wood would look and how much trouble I would get in warp-age or cracking after it was turn. Neither these presented a problem as I soon found out.
Since I did not think the wood would be good for turning I didn't take much care with finishing it and chose something simple to turn like a goblet. Well as I said I was pleasantly surprise and the wood did look better than expected and it turn very well. Makes me wish I had got more of it.
Well now that I know what to expect from the wood I will have to take more care and thought in design when I turning my next piece. I like nice surprises and this was one of them.
