# Different kind of wood...



## Clay3063 (Jan 31, 2017)

While we were at the river last week we had to cut some mustang (some folks call em mustad or muscadine) grape vine out of the way to get to the log we wanted. I cut a couple of sections of this vine just because I could. Has anyone ever turned this stuff or worked it in any form or fashion?





 
Second question, there are some really hard mushroom growths that are on some of the trees down at the river. They are quite large. Very hard and dense and have a peculiar smell that is similar to what bleach smells like. I know what bleach smells like because the wife is practically bathing in it of late trying to rid herself of some poison ivy. 

I'll post a couple pics of the vine and the mushroom / fungi

Reactions: Way Cool 1


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## Mr. Peet (Jan 31, 2017)

looks like one of the ganoderma mushrooms. As for the grape vine, tricky to dry, works ok, splinters. Very porous, stabilization may help.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1


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## ripjack13 (Jan 31, 2017)

@hmmvbreaker may have. I got some grapevine from him earlier, but I haven't used it yet...

@Sprung 

@Tony 

@CWS 

@ironman123

Reactions: Like 1


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## Tony (Jan 31, 2017)

ripjack13 said:


> @hmmvbreaker may have. I got some grapevine from him earlier, but I haven't used it yet...
> 
> @Sprung
> 
> ...



I didn't get any if it, but I'm pretty certain Matt @Sprung did. Tony

Reactions: Like 1


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## Clay3063 (Jan 31, 2017)

I was wondering if it is possible to stabilize the shrooms and then cut into them and turn them for pens. I may try this just because.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Clay3063 (Jan 31, 2017)

Clay3063 said:


> I was wondering if it is possible to stabilize the shrooms and then cut into them and turn them for pens. I may try this just because.


Same thing goes with the grapevine. I figure most of it will be pretty straight grained. But, there are loads of it that is this big or bigger that has all kinds of knots and burl looking growths on it. Hmmm. The gears are churning and clutches burning.

Reactions: Like 1


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## CWS (Jan 31, 2017)

I have made some pens from stabilized grapevine. It was not very impressive. If I was to do it again I would cut cross grain to show more end grain.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1


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## Sprung (Jan 31, 2017)

I recently finished up this one from grapevine. I stabilized it before turning it. Wasn't my favorite material to turn. It reminded me of turning black palm, but on a different scale. Even stabilized it seemed like a whole bunch of tiny, very fine threads that were glued together with very weak glue. Even with light cuts, sharp tool, high speeds I still ended up stopping short of finished diameter and sanding it the rest of the way. So, it's possible to work with it, but consider it a material that isn't the easiest to work with. At least that's been my experience. (Prior to this, I also have a piece that didn't handle drilling real well - was a brand new bit and was drilling slow.)

Reactions: EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 1 | Informative 1 | Useful 1


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## JR Parks (Jan 31, 2017)

Clay,
Curt is right the ones are very porous and more just a novelty. But cool. The pic seems to show a conk-a fruiting body of a fungus. Hard and woody they may be interesting but probably not much on figure. Let us know how they turn out if you do the conks. jim

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## norman vandyke (Jan 31, 2017)

Looks like the artists conk I stabilized a while back. I sliced it into knife scales and I'm not sure what happened with it or where it is now. It actually does lik pretty cool. Try to use older conks that have multiple layers(looks a bit like wood grain).

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## NeilYeag (Jan 31, 2017)

Clay3063 said:


> I was wondering if it is possible to stabilize the shrooms and then cut into them and turn them for pens. I may try this just because.



Stabilized Shrooms..... Cool!


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## Clay3063 (Feb 1, 2017)

NeilYeag said:


> Stabilized Shrooms..... Cool!


Yeh. That's kind of what I was thinking. LOL!


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## hmmvbreaker (Feb 6, 2017)

I have never worked grapevine myself. @ripjack13 made a pen from some that I sent him though. I only ripped it down to size, but even on a table saw I could tell it was very "grainy" and fiberous. It makes sense to me. I have seen them things to the top of a 70 ft tree, and so thick they actually killed the tree. That's a long way to flow water with so few cappilaries,

Reactions: Like 1


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