Question on turning spalted wood??

[glwalker]

My experience is that the prettiest spalted woods vary considerably in density. Parts of the blank will have pithy or softer wood.

Question: How do you sand these and not make then go out of round because the soft/pithy part of the blank sands down faster than the rest of the blanks? The result is flat spots.

Thanks for comments, suggestions..................

Thanks to everyone for your comments and suggestions...... greatly appreciated!

 

[Rifleman1776]

Spalt can be problematic. Sand while turning at low speed.
Wood that is very far gone with the spalt is probably too rotted to be useful.
Part of the beauty and attraction of spalt is it's relative scarcity and uniqueness.
Keep in mind, not all turning projects will be successful. Some are just learning lessons. Keep at it.

 

[robutacion]

My experience is that the prettiest spalted woods vary considerably in density. Parts of the blank will have pithy or softer wood.

Question: How do you sand these and not make then go out of round because the soft/pithy part of the blank sands down faster than the rest of the blanks? The result is flat spots.

Thanks for comments, suggestions..................

The question is not so much, how you sand, but what you do before you sand it, there is, spots that are soft should be sprayed or soak with a wood hardener. Some turners use CA, but I find it no recommended for large areas, as also some woods will stain forever with the CA, mainly very soft and very dry woods.

If what you are turning is pens, pre-soaking the blank in hardener for a couple of days, is very much all you need to do, apart from cases were the hardener failed to harden sufficiently in small areas, in that case, CA does normally fix the problem.

Hope this is of some help to you!
Cheers
George

 

[rjwolfe3]

I agree with George, it would be so much easier if the wood is stabilized. If you can't do it yourself, there are a lot of guys on here who offer professional stabilization for a good price. It might be worth sending it away to them.

 

[fiferb]

You can also use a flat backer board for your sandpaper. Take a flat board or pen blank, wrap sandpaper around it and use it to sand, this helps alleviate digging out the softer parts. It also works on wood grain that vary in hardness between the light and dark rings.

For spalted wood I also reccomend stabilizing.

 

[mickr]

you can soak in shellac if you have any..put it on soft part & sand as fiferb said

 

[purplehaze]

spalted wood

Spalted wood is one of my favorites when it comes to the finished pen, but they can be alot of work.

I use thin CA as I turn so the softer wood does not get ripped out. I have to do this several times until I get close to the size I want. I then apply more, use the skew to smooth any high spots and then block sand as others have mentioned.

The CA can turn the softer parts very dark but that makes for some unusual patterns. Some of the spalted cherry burls I use dont even look like real wood when I am done. Here is a pic of one of the first ones I made.

I have tried the wood hardener from the box stores on some spalted maple but havent had the chance to turn any yet so I cant help there.

 

[bitshird]

Wood hardener or CA, as has been stated, If you can drill the blanks first then soak them in wood hardener it works great, although you may have to re-drill the holes but just enough to clear the hardener.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I agree with all above... if you are dealing with spalted wood and parts of it are becoming soft, pithy or crumbling, you must stabilize it in some manner.. either a wood hardner (which I have never used, but definitely need to look into... I have picked up an entire tree of spalted maple.. some of which I will lose without some sort of stabilization), a sanding sealer, CA or whatever works best for you. You might also want to look into contacting one of the companies that does stabilization for others.. the one that comes to mind first is
http://www.rrpwhite.com/dymondwood.htm

 

[Verne]

CA, lot's of CA.
Vern

 

[dankc908]

I agree with all above... if you are dealing with spalted wood and parts of it are becoming soft, pithy or crumbling, you must stabilize it in some manner.. either a wood hardner (which I have never used, but definitely need to look into... I have picked up an entire tree of spalted maple.. some of which I will lose without some sort of stabilization), a sanding sealer, CA or whatever works best for you. You might also want to look into contacting one of the companies that does stabilization for others.. the one that comes to mind first is
http://www.rrpwhite.com/dymondwood.htm

This same company (rrpwhite.com) will, also, do an 'introductory sample' of 4 blanks (shipping included) for $9.00. I just got my 4 blanks of spalted mango back from them and it looks like it will be a dream to turn. They are great to work with!

Dan

 

[Bree]

I just finished doing a Spalted Maple pen. It had a number of punky sections. I used thin CA on the blanks. Each blank got three hits... at the beginning, middle, and near the end of turning. I compleely cover the blank with thin CA while it is on the mandrel. I wax the bushings first to keep them from sticking to the CA.

It works fine... But... CA does tend to darken and maybe even stain the wood. If you want that very light maple color, a different stabilizer might be in order.
:wink::wink::wink:

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Using a sanding block when sanding helps.

I mostly use a mouse pad backed by a thin strip of wood.

Common sanding blocks are:
Mouse pad
Thick felt
Cork
Rubber
Wood