I have had a recent request from a client to turn a willow stick into a group of wood rod handles. I have done quite a bit of wood turning before, but always with hard woods.
I was chatting with my brother who has spend hours and hours turning many different wood and as he put it: "Good luck with that one."
His opinion were two fold.
1. The willow is too soft and stringy for a decent turning.
2. The beauty of a diamond willow is in the exterior just below the bark with the patterns left from branches etc. It was his opinion that the bulk of the beauty of the wood would be lost if the branch were turned down to the heartwood of the branch.

I will do a test turn tomorrow on the lathe, but if anyone has had experience in working with this softer wood, please comment.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Roger

You can turn willow just fine, unless it is a crotch peice or a burl it will look very plain.

my opinion BORING! Why would anyone even sugest to turn willow?

You might keep at least some figure or character by cross cutting the stock and then turning that.

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