What is this red wood?

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mmoncur

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Hi, a few pieces of this wood came in a Woodcraft assortment. Can anyone identify it? It's reddish orange and has noticeable grooves / pits running through the grain. It's a bit oily. When ground down the grooves (which will be a pain in the neck to fill with CA) have black dots in them.

I assume this is something you guys see every day but I'm new to pen turning and wood in general... Thanks!

red-wood.jpg

P. S. My guesses are redheart, bloodwood, or padauk, but I have never seen any of them in person to compare...
 
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Padauk with heavy/irregular grain - I have a few pieces like that. Most Padauk turns like butter with good lathe speed and a sharp gouge, but I haven't turned any like this yet, I'm assuming there may be some minor tear out issues. Leave your cuts oversize and let your 150 grit paper do the final work.

Happy turning!
 
Cool! Padauk it is. I've already turned a slimline out of it -- a carbide tool ate through it like butter. Do you usually fill in the grooves/pores or leave them for texture?
 
If it's really oily be careful trying to finish with CA. I have had fogging issues with CA on oily wood. I have had good luck by cleaning the blank with denatured alchohol before finishing to avoid the fogging.
 
I have used quite a bit of Paduak. It not only makes a nice pen alone but is perfect for complimentary pieces, trim rings,segmenting etc.

Only difficulty I have had with it is the tendancy for the sanding dust to miscolor adjacent pieces. I TRY to minimize that by using a skew to get a nice finish WITHOUT sanding. I did say TRY! Other methods I have used have been to quickly seal the padauk area with thin CA to help prevent the sanding dust from getting into the other woods when I sand them.
Would love to hear what others have found effective when turning Padauk.
 
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