Dave Mount
01-22-2021, 5:22 PM
I never turned anything but woods native to the U.S. until a little over a month ago. Now I'm going down a rathole with "exotic" woods. . .
First pic is cocobolo, bubinga, and padauk, all circa 2" in diameter. The two on the sides don't look round, that's a camera fisheye thing. The padauk looks like there's a gouge mark or something right on the tangent to the grain; that's not a flaw, that's a weird optical feature of the wood, that happens right where the fibers are on perfect tangent. It runs all the way around the sphere.
Next is a piece of "golden chain", a flowering shrubby tree apparently common in Europe, in the Laburnum genus. Turns wonderfully and takes a great polish. This piece I got via a friend was a 2.75"-ish piece dried in the round, so there's a big drying crack on the opposite side that I filled with epoxy and ground coffee. Was a rotten knot in the area shown, stabilized with epoxy and CA. Sapwood/heartwood contrast is nice. About 2.5" diameter.
Next pic is three ~3" spheres turned from unseasoned wood I just received; I cut off a piece of each and rough turned spheres to be waxed, dried, then turned round again. Chakte viga, granadillo (aka macacauba or orange agate), and katalox. These are just rough off the gouge, unsanded and unfinished, but the wood is striking nonetheless. Can hardly wait until they are dry enough to finish.
Funny thing happened when I went to reseal the cut ends of the 3x3 blanks; the chakte viga started bleeding a wild magenta color into the water-base Anchorseal. Granadillo on the left, chakte viga on the right.
Best,
Dave
450096450097450098450099
First pic is cocobolo, bubinga, and padauk, all circa 2" in diameter. The two on the sides don't look round, that's a camera fisheye thing. The padauk looks like there's a gouge mark or something right on the tangent to the grain; that's not a flaw, that's a weird optical feature of the wood, that happens right where the fibers are on perfect tangent. It runs all the way around the sphere.
Next is a piece of "golden chain", a flowering shrubby tree apparently common in Europe, in the Laburnum genus. Turns wonderfully and takes a great polish. This piece I got via a friend was a 2.75"-ish piece dried in the round, so there's a big drying crack on the opposite side that I filled with epoxy and ground coffee. Was a rotten knot in the area shown, stabilized with epoxy and CA. Sapwood/heartwood contrast is nice. About 2.5" diameter.
Next pic is three ~3" spheres turned from unseasoned wood I just received; I cut off a piece of each and rough turned spheres to be waxed, dried, then turned round again. Chakte viga, granadillo (aka macacauba or orange agate), and katalox. These are just rough off the gouge, unsanded and unfinished, but the wood is striking nonetheless. Can hardly wait until they are dry enough to finish.
Funny thing happened when I went to reseal the cut ends of the 3x3 blanks; the chakte viga started bleeding a wild magenta color into the water-base Anchorseal. Granadillo on the left, chakte viga on the right.
Best,
Dave
450096450097450098450099