John, The wood you are describing is closely akin to a specie called lignum vitae which is extremely dense having a specific gravity of 1.23. The chunk you have is worth a bit of money on today's market. The best advice I can give you is to keep a rough sharpening stone next to your lathe and touch up the edge of your turning tools frequently. The most common finishing tool you will use is the skew; it looks like an angled chisel and is easily sharpened on a stone. Also these exotic woods are extremely oily and clog sandpaper very quickly. Keep a good supply on hand and change your sandpaper out frequently. I really don't know of any carbide turning tools. Do you know of a source? Charles Faulk On Fri, 19 Feb 1999 18:23:17 -0700 John R Fortiner <pianoserv440@juno.com> writes: >Charles, I am just curious. Have you ever tried turning Mexican >Ironwood? That stuff, I would think, would make a great tuning lever >as it is very dense and strong (sinks in water). I have a piece here >that I have been saving to make a lever with, but have never done so >as I only have a small piece - roughly 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 15 inches. It >is certainly well aged as I acquired the wood in 1969. The only thing >that I know for sure about it is that it is really tough on steel >tools. I have seen my piece take the edge off HS steel jointer blades >in about 2 seconds ( OUCH ! ). The "natives" where it grows use tools >made of stone to work it. I suppose that carbide would hold up to it, >but you know the price of carbide turning tools. If you have any >thoughts about this, please respond. > >John R. Fortiner >pianoserv440@juno.com >___________________________________________________________________ >You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get >completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html >or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
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