Replies

1. 
   VeniciaL | Dec 07, 2003 10:08am | #1

   Jeff,

   Some people consider the color variation part of the charm of padauk. However, if you want to even it out, then whatever skill you have to get the two areas even is appropriate. And it sounds like you have achieved that with the pore filler and dye mixture.

   There is no way it's going to be an absolutely exact match, and that's why you can see the transition, especially as you say, because you know where to look. Test it with someone else.

   But a test patch is something we hurry through and over several days, the color match you now have may change as the piece dries. Worse, the bright vermillion color of the heartwood that is so beautiful when padauk is first worked, will turn browner and browner with exposure to light and air - especially to light. You can slow the change by keeping the piece out of direct light (a difficult thing to to with a table), but you can't really prevent the inevitable. The dye in the sapwood will not undergo the same color change and you'll have quite a color mismatch in time.

   VL

2. 
   jazzdogg | Dec 07, 2003 10:55pm | #2

   Jeff,

   I built a five-species hardwood (zebrano, bubinga, padauk, mahogany, ebony) cutting board as a test piece for a finishing class. The assignment was to apply a sanded-in oil finish and write a paper that detailed our observations and recommendations.

   The padauk's oil-sawdust slurry created remarkable effects when it filled the pores of the adjacent species (as did the ebony); it tinted the oil, filling the pores and dying the surface to an extent.

   The padauk I was working with did not contain any sapwood, but it would have been interesting to have seen what effect that vivid red/orange slurry had on the sapwood.

   If you try this experiment with some scrap, I'd be curious to read your findings.

   Good luck,
   Paul

   Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
1. 
   user-5880422 | Dec 07, 2003 11:04pm | #3

   thanks for both responses. Note that I do love the color streaking that is a hallmark of padauk, but in this case I have a section of sapwood that is so bad it looks like someone splashed some dirty white paint on it... not pretty. I should have discarded this board, but didn't have any additional stock to substitute so I gotta make it work.

   the oil/slurry is something to think about, maybe I'll thin the waterlox heavily for the first couple of coats and wet sand it in, adding a little dye as needed?

   re on test pieces, point is well taken... I tend to have so much stuff going on at once that my test pieces do run several days, and I try several pieces with different methods and compare. Finishing a piece is definitely the most frustrating and rewarding aspect of this, it takes a series of steps punctuated by long stretches in between, but when it comes out at the end it's all worth it.

   Edited 12/7/2003 5:45:39 PM ET by Jeff

3. 
   10fingers | Dec 08, 2003 07:03am | #4

   Be careful when sanding padauk.   I became highly allergic to it and had to give up working with it entirely.   If I sanded it wearing a respirator, I still got a sinus infection.

   Chuck

1. 
   user-5880422 | Dec 08, 2003 08:50am | #5

   thanks, fortunately I have proven to be tolerant of most everything I work with (except my brother-in-law!). I do make it a habit of wearing a respirator and running my air cleaner, although I have more or less gone over to cabinet scrapers over sanding these days, especially on woods like padauk that seem to pop up in color and feel after scraping. Incidentally, one wood that really did get to my was ipe, the dust is so fine that I got clogged up pretty good, even with a respirator.

   Edited 12/8/2003 12:52:03 AM ET by Jeff