Coffee grounds would be too dark against the mallee for my taste. I tried with shavings/dust from this same piece and was very unimpressed with the results. I thought about a complete contrast with some crushed apetite, but there is a gouge that goes around the barrel and needs to be built up, too. I have more of this wood, but it's just a shame to waste it like this. Maybe I'll use the top half for a cap on a classic rollerball since they're both 10mm. No need to waste it all.
I did not. I don't have a vacuum pot for stabilizing, but have done so with ultra thin CA on a few blanks when I thought they were too fragile. I have turned some other pieces of this of this without doing so. There weren't any punky spots or holes that needed to be filled. It was probably just a very slight (bad) motion that caused the catch. I definitely don't blame the wood.
