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Spalted Tamarind wood & Buckeye burl

Truffuls

Truffuls

Joined
Dec 30, 2007
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Long Island & Ashe County, NC
Anyone ever try this? I'm curious whether it is punky or difficult to work with. I got a 3x3x12 this weekend and want to play with it.

I also have a few pieces of Buckeye Burl and it feels really dry. I'm wondering what it is like to turn; chippy, crumbly?

Thanks a bunch.
 
Buckeye

My experience with it is that it has been crumbly, and produces a lot of fine dust when sanding. But it is in no way difficult to turn.

I love the wood though, it is really pretty when finished and reminds me a lot of stone. I was shocked the first time I held a piece at how light it was. I prefer the gray/blue color wood as opposed to the cream color.
 
I've turned one bowl out of spalted tamarind. It turns well for being a soft wood. I didn't realise that there were a number of soft spots that didn't show themselves until I was put some pressure on them with sealer (velvit oil in this case). I wound up digging what were worm holes out, filling them, and then returning the bowl a bit. Wound up looking pretty decent.

I have one more blank that I'll be better prepared for. It should make a nice lidded vessel.

Marc
 
I've had three pieces of spalted tamarind. One piece turned out beautifully, and it sold before I even had a chance to get a picture of it. The other two pieces were so far gone with spalting that I couldn't do anything with them.
 
I also have had three pieces of spalted tamarind. Two needed only moderate amounts of CA to consolidate the wood and the results were spectacular. The wood was soft until the CA glued it together.

The third piece was too far gone to turn and virtually disintegrated when I tried rounding it up.

I believe if I had another piece I would soak it repeatedly in thinned lacquer and try that method of consolidating the wood. I think spalted wood is one of those pay your money take your chances kind of deals...
 
Steve Worcester said:
Is there such thing as hard buckeye burl? It looks beautiful, but reminds me of sandy styrofoam, with some pebbles thrown in.
Click to expand...

Exactly! You've hit the skew on the point! It reminds me of the freeze-dried strawberries in that Special-K cereal, or the freeze-dried marshmallows in a kiddy cereal.

I'm almost afraid to try the blanks I got. But that spalted tamarind looks mighty tempting.

My Stubby arrives Saturday!!!
 
Buckeye burl is beautiful stuff! Soft and sandy when dry so use a very, very sharp tool. Hone the tool with a stone before your finished cuts for best results. Sanding sealer also helps before making the final cuts. It binds the fibers together a bit.

- Scott
 
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