CHJ
Established Member
Ash & Mahogany, 100mm dia.
Simple little pot but almost two hours of agrovation learning a couple of facts, or should that be remembering/re-learning past experiences.
1. Open grained wood such as Ash can be a pig to present torn grain at the slightest inattention to tool presentation when trying to produce cross grain curves.
2. Not all abrasives are equal.
A little qualification on the last score, I have a whole load of sheet (woodworking) abrasive that's been around for 10 yrs+ neatly stored in a file case alongside a range of emery cloth etc.
Now this white coated paper backed abrasive cuts well but is a little sensitive on the strength front for lathe use and had been passed over for tougher products when I got into power sanding.
In the spirit of new years resolutions and a conscience that says some of this junk must go I gave some 120 grit a coating of looking at and an application to the pot, abrasion was fine although as expected paper baking prone to give up if care not taken.
Continued to finished off with my normal 180-240 stock and dusted it down for sealer, quick once over and no obvious scratches so slapped on the sealer to make sure no tool or scratch marks were visible before reverse mounting to complete base.
WHAT THE !!! open pored end grain regions show a distinct mottling of black bits, had not noted any mould spalting on the piece but it does occasionally rear it's head when you seal wood?
Investigation turned up the fact that the nice white coated abrasive is in fact black grit based and shed grit had found itself a nice comfy home nestled in the endgrain pores.
Fortunately they were not deeply embedded and a few seconds with a 'good' abrasive dislodged them and we were back to an Ash wood look rather than a Burnt Ash look.
Simple little pot but almost two hours of agrovation learning a couple of facts, or should that be remembering/re-learning past experiences.
1. Open grained wood such as Ash can be a pig to present torn grain at the slightest inattention to tool presentation when trying to produce cross grain curves.
2. Not all abrasives are equal.
A little qualification on the last score, I have a whole load of sheet (woodworking) abrasive that's been around for 10 yrs+ neatly stored in a file case alongside a range of emery cloth etc.
Now this white coated paper backed abrasive cuts well but is a little sensitive on the strength front for lathe use and had been passed over for tougher products when I got into power sanding.
In the spirit of new years resolutions and a conscience that says some of this junk must go I gave some 120 grit a coating of looking at and an application to the pot, abrasion was fine although as expected paper baking prone to give up if care not taken.
Continued to finished off with my normal 180-240 stock and dusted it down for sealer, quick once over and no obvious scratches so slapped on the sealer to make sure no tool or scratch marks were visible before reverse mounting to complete base.
WHAT THE !!! open pored end grain regions show a distinct mottling of black bits, had not noted any mould spalting on the piece but it does occasionally rear it's head when you seal wood?
Investigation turned up the fact that the nice white coated abrasive is in fact black grit based and shed grit had found itself a nice comfy home nestled in the endgrain pores.
Fortunately they were not deeply embedded and a few seconds with a 'good' abrasive dislodged them and we were back to an Ash wood look rather than a Burnt Ash look.
