# crazy blue spalt and bloodwood question



## kingcotrader (Apr 30, 2009)

was using my lathe, aka christmas gift machine, and wanted to share a couple things. first, check out the crazy blue spalt on this maple bottle stopper! maybe its not that cool but i feel like ive seen my first naked woman or something . 
also, completed my second segmented piece.. its seems the bloodwood seperating the walnut is bleeding? no pun intended.. any experience with this? prevention? just shot with straight lacquer.. maybe i needed a sealer?


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## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

you're picking up red dust in the pores of the maple --- a common occurance w/ white woods. Hard maple is one of the least sensitive because of small pores. It looks like you might be using soft maple? That's more sensitive. I've seen this before and had a HORRIBLE instance of it last night in canarywood that turned an ugly blotchy red when turned (actually the burnishing step was the culprit) next to padauk. A light sanding moving from the light wood onto the red wood fixed the problem for me.


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

I had a piece many years ago that I fought tooth and nail to cut down on the bleeding. It is sanding dust filling the pores of the lighter wood and can even happen the other way with the light wood filling the dark wood pores but it doesn't happen as often. 
Sometimes very careful sanding trying not to carry one color onto the next will work. In your case try blowing out the dust with a compressor and then sand very carefully the white areas avoiding sanding from dark to white direction.
The best method I've found is to use a quick drying sanding sealer. I use lacquer sanding sealer. Put a coat on and sand. Blow or wipe off all the dust. Then seal again, let it dry and sand with the next grit. Repeat. Do this between each grit. The sealer helps fill the pores or at least helps the dust come back out when you wipe it off.


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## b00kemdano (Feb 10, 2009)

That spalted maple is really cool looking! :thumbsup:

I recently inherited an entire maple tree. I hope I find some of that in it! :yes:


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## Julian the woodnut (Nov 5, 2008)

I have had luck sanding with finer and finer grits to eliminate the blotching . I also tried to only sand one type of wood at a time to help eliminate bleeding.


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## kingcotrader (Apr 30, 2009)

hey thanks for the info. thats a totally different line of thought than i had.. makes sense though... thanks!


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## Dvoigt (Dec 6, 2007)

john lucas said:


> The best method I've found is to use a quick drying sanding sealer. I use lacquer sanding sealer. Put a coat on and sand. Blow or wipe off all the dust. Then seal again, let it dry and sand with the next grit. Repeat. Do this between each grit. The sealer helps fill the pores or at least helps the dust come back out when you wipe it off.


I was at the local woodcraft the other day and asked them this same question (I had some mahogany getting into my maple). I had a can of lacquer sanding sealer in my hand and they stared at me like I was out of my mind and said that wouldn't help and the best method is to just try and sand separately.


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## toolman Steve (Jun 11, 2009)

I had the same problem With pens ,The ones with knots are especially troublesome . I just told people it was part of the finish . Oh by the way very good job ,nice work


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