Canary Island Pine?

Vaughn McMillan

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I have a neighbor who's having a large Canary Island Pine removed from his property, and I have first dibs on any of the wood.

I know that pine in general is not desirable for turning, but some species, like Norfolk Island pine are good. Any of you folks know anything about Canary Island pine? I figure if none of you has any reason not to turn it, I'll give it a try. At the very worst, I'll have some pine firewood for the other neighbors who get my cut-offs.

Any advice?
 
I had never heard of Canary Island pine so I googled it. Looks to be a true pine, pinus, unlike Norfolk Island Pine. But I'll try anything once. It might be some great wood, who knows.
 
Vaughn when he cuts it if you see a lot of resin then myself I probably wouldn't turn it. I turned a piece of spruce and scrub pine. Your tools will be a mess and need to be cleaned up with mineral spirits. Sticky gooey stuff. Not fun cleaning it up off the tools and lathe.
 
Vaughn when he cuts it if you see a lot of resin then myself I probably wouldn't turn it. I turned a piece of spruce and scrub pine. Your tools will be a mess and need to be cleaned up with mineral spirits. Sticky gooey stuff. Not fun cleaning it up off the tools and lathe.
That sounds like good advice, Bernie. :thumb: I'll have a good look at the stickiness before I try turning any of it.
 
Vaughn when he cuts it if you see a lot of resin then myself I probably wouldn't turn it. I turned a piece of spruce and scrub pine. Your tools will be a mess and need to be cleaned up with mineral spirits. Sticky gooey stuff. Not fun cleaning it up off the tools and lathe.

It is messy stuff. Back in the day here in Maine, kids used to go out in the woods and find Spruce Gum. Its where a spruce tree might have rubbed another tree or something and caused a scar. This thick tar like pitch would come out in gobs and the kids would chew it like bubble-gum. In fact its where chewing gum got its start. It has a nice wintergreen like taste, but if you got false-choppers, it might not be a chewing gum to try.

The stuff was so sticky, and so clear that in world war II they used the stuff as an epoxy to hold the gun sights of the big bombers. It held the optics in place, and yet could be seen through with total clarity. Young teenage girls were paid to go out into the Maine woods and collect jars of the goo for the war effort.

Here is a picture (though small) of a Spruce Gum pocket. Its situated just underneath my bar in a whitish goo. If the wood has pockets like this Vaughn,I would not bother to try turning it...it would be a complete mess. But if its pretty clear and non-resinous, I would give it a whirl.

Spruce_Gum-216x140.jpg
 
Well, the tree came down last weekend, and I went over to check out the wood before committing to any of it. The trunk sections that had been cut were oozing lots of clear, sticky sap the consistency of molasses. I told the neighbor thanks but no thanks. He was bummed about having to remove the tree in the first place (it was beautiful, tearing up his living room floor and foundation), and also bummed that it wasn't turnable. He's an artist, and he would have liked to have seen the tree be turned into something nicer than firewood.

So, the moral of the story is...if you're offered Canary Island Pine for turning wood, it's probably best to just say no.
 
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