Question for the horners

[BillinOregon]

In my readings, I see that plain old pine is extremely common as butt plug material. My question is, how does it turn on a lathe? It seems it might be just too soft to shape precisely but I am probably very, very wrong. In most cases I would expect the pine to be eastern white or longleaf, no?

 

[ladysmithtrading]

correct on the species and pine does turn well with SHARP tools, personally I prefer to turn maple, cherry and walnut

 

[gus13]

personal experience has shown me that it does turn alright, I just don't get quite as nice a look as I would like it to be... but thats just me! take a look at my post "another horn" which has a beehive plug done in pine, think it would have been better in maple, walnut, or even cherry.

 

[omarick1948]

Bill, Pine was very common and if you can get some OLD GROWTH PINE from old lumber sources like barns and old buildings. That is the good stuff and it turns very nicely.

Rick

 

[BillinOregon]

Rick: Out here in Oregon we have a lot of ponderosa, sugar and western white as well as some oddballs like digger and Jeffrey. Other tempting but non-trad plug materials include Pacific yew and Douglas fir. The yew is tempting because of the beautiful contrast between sap and heart wood, and because of the character of the tiny pin knots. I even have a buffalo horn that I am fitting a plug of wavy-grain cedar to. But for a back-in-the-day horn with Eastern provenance, guess it should be Eastern white ...

 

[Rifleman1776]

I'm a turner but will not work with pine. Soft, stringy, often sticky.

 

[omarick1948]

I'm a turner but will not work with pine. Soft, stringy, often sticky.

Your probably talking about common lumber yard yellow pine or fir being passed off as pine.__ Old growth tight grain pine turns nice!