My Paduak lesson
Someone came into where I was working looking for an ornamental piece of wood for the mounting block of a crystal horse head. The origional was a pressboard block with teak veneer. The bond let go and the teak veneer was in rough shape. I suggested he try the Exotic Wood Group. He did and bought a peice of Paduak 8x8x3. It was encased in wax. I only needed about 5 1\2 inches of the width. First I scraped off the wax on1 edge and both faces so it was smooth. Then I joined the 1 scraped edge. When I ripped it on the tablesaw I could see the moisture in the wood as well as feel it to the touch. I was worried about it cracking from drying out too fast. I kept a close watch and it was fine for 3 days as I sanded it by hand. Untill I squared the ends and radiused the edges and sanded the end grain. I made the fatal mistake of letting it sit for 1 day like that before I noticed little cracks appearing on the end grain sides when I went to finish it on day two after I hit it with the first coat of shellac.
I had tried to find out as much as I could about this wood but there wasn't much I could find. Most people recommended wiping it with alchohol prior to finishing. I also found out it has an interlocking grain pattern which makes the wood so attractive. I would have tried to trim the edges but it would have been out of proprtion. So off to the Exotic Wood Group I went and bought 2 more pieces (just in case). I tried it again except this time when I had both faces and sides sanded I squared the end grain sides radiused the edges and sanded the end grain and promptly sealed it with 2 coats of shellac. Finally success. The grain is porous so what I did was successive coats of shellac and sanded with 0000 steel wool inbetween coats. I really wanted it to come out nice and I wanted the pores filled. 17 coats of shellac later and two coats of wax I was finally happy with it. My friend was happy with it, actually he was ecstatic. I have a picture on my phone of the piece mounted. If I can figure out how to get it off my phone I will post it on the page. There was no way I could ever have given that to him. I still have the first piece and the cracks stopped at the point when I discovered them. I'm sure I will find a use for it. It was a learning experience to say the least.