Wood selection advice

[mfisher]

Most of my work has been done using maple, walnut, mahogany, mesquite and cedar.
For my next solid segment project I would like to introduce some different color.

I am looking at using some Padauk, but read that it can "bleed" color into the lighter color wood next to it. Read that Bloodwood can do the same.

What are some suggestions for wood (that is not super expensive) that has good color
(red, black, orange, yellow).

When using Padauk or Bloodwood, how did you prevent the bleeding or contamination of color into the lighter segments.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob Beaupre]

Mike, my favorite woods to use are Maple, Purpleheart, Padauk, Wenge, Cherry, Yellowheart, some Bloodwood but find it hard to find, Chakte Viga and Walnut.

Have not had much problem with bleeding of color. Use lots of air blowing out all the sand dust between every sanding pass, as little handling as possible, especially when there is saw dust on it.

 

[mfisher]

Thanks for the tip, Bob. I have used a bit of Bubinga in the past without issues. Think I will give Padauk a try.
Maybe Purpleheart, but I am not a purple fan. (Too much Viking color for me, )

The woodclub shop does have air hose available at each of the lathe stations. So should be able to keep the wood clean. I have the plans to do a acoma type bowl with a Tom L. design.

It is so cool to do something in SP with changing profiles. I then went through the work to create a WTP file of the project. (acoma wtp post). I did this so I could change ring thickness and I like using the profile view. Still working with different wood species. This one is maple, bubinga, wenge and walnut. I know this will not be the final color selection.

I hope to start this project sometime after Christmas. Need to finish another bowl first. This one is also based on Tom L. design. (bowl nov 11 d one eighth). I have all the segment cut, rings made. I have the base, and rings 1-4 glued onto the base. I am using this bowl to work on my alignment method. It is the most complex design I have tried. As I told my wife, it is a prototype made from left over wood from other projects.

 

[Bob Beaupre]

Mike both look like winners to me. Always good to look for contrasting colors

 

[mfisher]

Thanks Bob for the info. Have to admit your work and others have me excited in increasing the number of segments per ring for a closed segment vessel. The Follow along threads have been helpful.

 

[Bob Beaupre]

You get to see all our mistakes

 

[mfisher]

You get to see all our mistakes

What mistakes? oh, you mean the ones I repeat in my bowl making. (lol).

Still waiting for some of the wood to go on sale at woodworkers source. I know every year they have Christmas specials.

 

[Malcolm Douglas]

I typically use maple, walnut, Wenge, Purple Heart, yellow heart, bubinga, padauk and more recently bloodwood and Osage orange although limited with these latter two as I have to get them sent to UK from USA (very expensive). I have found that padauk does bleed its colour into adjoining lighter woods when applying finish. Remove the dust and only carry out limited sanding to keep dust down to a minimum. You may need to sand without the lathe running to help with this. The when applying finish, spray on sanding sealer for a few coats to seal the colour in. Don’t use sealer applied with a cloth as this will tend to smudge colour from one segment to another. You should be ok to apply your favourite finish when the surface is sealed. Hope this helps, Malcolm.

 

[mfisher]

I typically use maple, walnut, Wenge, Purple Heart, yellow heart, bubinga, padauk and more recently bloodwood and Osage orange although limited with these latter two as I have to get them sent to UK from USA (very expensive). I have found that padauk does bleed its colour into adjoining lighter woods when applying finish. Remove the dust and only carry out limited sanding to keep dust down to a minimum. You may need to sand without the lathe running to help with this. The when applying finish, spray on sanding sealer for a few coats to seal the colour in. Don’t use sealer applied with a cloth as this will tend to smudge colour from one segment to another. You should be ok to apply your favourite finish when the surface is sealed. Hope this helps, Malcolm.

Thanks for the tips.
At this point I am most likely going to rule out padauk. Like you I have done a lot with maple and walnut. I have used bubinga without much issue. I tend to like to use wipe on sanding sealer and poly for finishes.

With more research I am leaning towards maple, walnut, and bubinga.