Iacopo,
Not really. Do you have any suggestions? A medium dark wood would be preferable, and something not too hard to lathe. Thanks.
James
For the top you need a stable wood. My list of relatively stable woods, (the most stable are the first ones), is:
Afzelia
Western red cedar
Granadillo
Cocobolo
Iroko
Honduras mahogany
Burmese teak
African blackwood
African padauk
Obeche
Gidgee
Osage orange
Ziricote
Snakewood
If you want a light wood, obeche and western red cedar are the best ones of the list.
Iroko, mahogany and teak too are good as for lightness.
As for aesthetics, my preferred of the list is snakewood.
I often use iroko for my tops, which is very stable, and light:
I have many planks of iroko, they come from the demolition of a sailer, the galleon Santa Monica, (!)
Well, this wasn't a real antique galleon, but a old schooner converted into a galleon in 1961 for a movie with pirates, and then used as a floating restaurant:
http://www.viareggiok.it/la-storia-del-galeone-santa-monica/It was demolished in 1979, and my father, who was looking for the wood for making the doors windows and other wooden parts for the house where we now live, had the opportunity to have part of the wood of that sailer. I still have remains of those planks.
As for the hardness, don't worry, even the hardest wood is not difficult to turn on the lathe, compared to metals.
Harder woods are maybe even easier to turn than light ones, because they are more compact and smooth.
