I’m using leopardwood for some small projects. I’ve used many species of wood but never have I seen anything that splinters your hands like this stuff. It’s like working with cactus. Sharp pieces that go deep with the least touch.
Any one else dealt with this?
Replies
Yep, it's no fluke. It's also hard to sand to a smooth surface, as the wood density varies greatly in the figure. I ended up having little depressions wherever a leopard spot was.
Darkens considerably when finishing with oil -- test your finish on scrap first.
It does splinter a but, but I have found it planes very nicely with a high angle plane (50 degree ramp on mine) and it does scrape well. Yeah, it darkens too much for my taste with oil, so I've always just used blonde shellac. Finishes pretty smooth. I like it overall. What's the project?
Adam
My own adaptation of a day-use jewelry holder. Sort of a stand to display on. As I recall I paid around 12 bucks a board foot for the stuff and I bought 50 bft of it so I'm keeping it for little things. Very striking once finished, but wow, I must've picked 15 splinters out of my hand on the last ones I made and they only take about 4 manhours.
Hi,
I had to repair some violin and bass bows made from this and noticed the same problem on sections where the grain runout was bad. The only way to keep my dermis intact was to approach from the uphill side and keep a very small hook on my scraper. Any time I had to cut patches I would make a jig to hold the wood so I didn't have to touch any fresh cut wood.
Thos.
I'm gonna try some latex or nitrile gloves. See if this stifles the splinters. Man, when those things get you, you need a shovel to dig em out.
I hate to say it but those splinters can find their way through anything! Seriously, I bet the gloves might help. Any pics of these little stands? I hate to tell you, but I have probably 20 or more BF of 8/4 Leopardwood that I salvaged from....pallets! That's right. It was at our local lumbaryard and a friend had seen them and they him have it all! They had no idea what was sitting there!
Adam
No, I don't have pics. Will take one of the last batch when I get them done.
Wow, from pallets? What a find! I'm seeing that I got two different looking woods in my batch. Some of it, flat sawn and some quartersawn. Didn't order it that way. The qs is awesome.
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