I did not invent the Indian Blanket. I got the idea from an insane bowl turner...Malcolm Tibets. That's guy's patterns and segmentation and the shear size of some of his things, and then the waves and discs..I can go on and on about his lunacy becuase he is a treasure of idea's. Some things he show's, some he doesn't. He must have a lot of time, because his projects must take thousands of hours to do.
I made 8 blankets last weekend. You have to have your tools in tune. That's #1 most important. Next, start with softer woods. Harder woods are more prone to failure. I had a couple purpleheart that are ok, but not as good as I'd have liked. It all comes down to blade deflection. Super hard woods like purpleheart, the saw blade bends and twists as it burns it's way through. This is the table and the chop saw with a $150 blade in it. Deflection while ripping is repairable easily by using a drum sander. The rip cut deflection though is far less critical than cross cut deflection. Cross cut deflection can be repaired with a disc sander, but not easily, especially with a hard wood like purpleheart or bloodwood, becuase of how hard it is to sand and how thin and small the pieces are. If there is cross-cut deflection, when you glue the pieces together, end to end as triangles with wedges, well the board will want to bow or wave it'self together. The joints need to be straight up and down or else when you flip the strips later, the sections won't be perfectly the same. It's difficult to explain without actually doing it in person while you watch. Bottom line is you need perfect tuning on your equipment, and some good luck. Make some maple/walnut blankets to practice with. They look great and are much easier to work with.
