On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 08:07:12 -0400, "Bill Gooch"
wrote:

I was given a half dozen large chunks of basswood - 4ft lengths about 10
inches round. It's green and I'm not having much luck turning it. Either
its the wood or my technique but I seem to be ripping the wood apart rather
than getting the nice curls coming off the gouge that I get with ash etc.
Also, the one bowl I have pretty much finished was very difficult to sand, a
lot of long fibers that took a lot of work with a 40grit sandpaper to get to
a point where they disappeared.

Is there a technique to use with basswood or is it better off left to
carvers? Any thoughts?

Might need to be dry- basswood was the first thing I tried turning,
and it worked really nicely on the lathe, though I was using
kiln-dried 8/4 stock. Not sure if it is worth the effort visually,
though- that's an awfully bland wood.