Turning a big hunk of Black Acacia

Rough turned Black Acacia

Today I took some time to work on one of the smaller pieces of Black Acacia I picked up.  Super green, to the point of water coming out when I drove in the faceplate screws.  I used one of the big lathes at school and it was a real pleasure.  This wood is more than a little weird, compared to everything else I have worked on so far.  I think the big elms around here continue to furnish my favorite pieces, but I haven't tried turning anything really large with those yet.

When cutting this thing up on the bandsaw, the wood would "stick" to the steel surface.  I should have waxed or used some of the spray they have in the shops, but didn't really want to mess with their tools too much.  So, extreme caution ruled the day as there was a lot of blade showing and I had to really press on the block to break the friction.  I used push sticks near the blade.  I was really enjoying turning this, but when it came time to hollow, I had an even worse than usual time.  Maybe the tools had gotten dull or maybe I hadn't slowed the lathe down enough ( though I was running it pretty slow).   A bowl gouge caught once to many times and ripped the faceplate off.  I decided that was the end of the day for me.  I packed the vessel into a plastic bag with a pile of the shaving and tied it off.  I wouldn't want to leave it in there too long for fear of mold, but I think the wood was starting to crack just during the rough turning.

If so, then this is super touchy wood.  I ordered a new hollowing tool the other day and hope that will help me with this stuff.