If you’re like many turners, the mainstay of your turning stock is chosen from species that are readily available in your area. That makes perfect sense. Many of the best turning projects start out with a trip to the scrap bin or a nearby grove of trees.  But just in case you have a mind to broaden your turning stock horizons, we want you to know that Rockler has you covered like never before. Over the last year or so we’ve greatly expanded our selection of exotic and domestic turning blanks, all of which are selected and prepared with specific lumber needs of a woodturner in mind. Here are a few departures to consider:

East Indian Rosewood is a current favorite turning stock choice. An extremely dense and hard wood it makes an excellent choice for work with fine detail. The heartwood is generally purplish-brown with darker streaks that add figure. If it has a down side, it’s that it’s a little on the abrasive side and not as tool-friendly as some other species. But most turners find a little extra tool honing time a reasonable tradeoff for the rich color and exceptional polish-ability. Like most of the turning blank species Rockler offers, East Indian Rosewood is available in sizes suitable for everything from table legs to serving-sized bowls. Rosewood blanks we’ve seen go out the door have received excellent marks in our customer reviews, and are finding a home in everything from hand planes to pepper mills.

Cocobolo, another rosewood cousin, is a long-time turning stock favorite. An ideal turning candidate, Cocobolo is prized for its almost unparalleled luster, its distinctive grain pattern and its exceptional color scheme, which includes a spectrum of red, orange and yellow tones punctuated by darker streaks.  An extremely hard and durable wood, the species is a great choice both for detailed work, and for any finished product that will have to stand up to a hard use. Cocobolo is a very oily wood and is essentially waterproof, making it a popular material for cutlery handles, bowls and anything else that will meet regularly with water.  Cocobolo turning blanks are also receiving praise from our customers in reviews like these:

"One of the most beautiful pieces of wood that I have ever seen. Will be definitely ordering more of your woods."

Richard Brooks, from Eatonton, GA

"This stick lived up to its reputation-Beautiful. I am surprised to see a company that seems to specialize in tools, etc. can offer such exceptional quality!"

James Fay, from Norfolk, MA

"A great looking piece of wood."

Robert P. Giese, from Bedford, WY

Black Palm is another species you won’t find stacked near the two-by-fours at you local building materials supplier. A knockout to look at, Black palm gives the appearance of a deep brown background overlaid with darker flecks or streaks that shine with an orange translucency in bright light. The end grain offers a completely different and equally striking effect, a unique speckled appearance that is sometimes likened to lizard skin. Tight grained and stable, Black Palm is an excellent candidate for small ornamental projects where an exceptional visual effect is the goal. Take, for example, the pen you see below. This remarkable specimen was turned by a Rockler customer who was kind enough to send us the image along with the following review:

"I will very highly recommend the Black Palm Turning stock from Rockler, The stock turned very easily on my Lathe and came out looking great. Thanks again Rockler for the great service and speedy service."

(Image and review submitted by Raymond E. James, from Morehead, KY)

Of course, when you’re picking out turning stock, you don’t necessarily have to choose wood. For a truly unusual turning experience, try your hand at a Banksia Pod. These otherworldly looking things are actually the seed pod of the Banksia tree, an evergreen native to Australia. Popular for use in everything jewelry to knife handles, Banksia nuts (as they are alternatively called) are remarkable for the multiple voids that radiate from their center. The pods turn readily – although they can be a little on the dusty side – and have an interior color similar the walnut burl and a figure that resembles bird’s eye.

Other out of the way turning stock options include Pink Ivory, Black and White Ebony, Pau Ferro, Tamboti, and African Blackwood (to name just a few). A great way to find out which ones you like best is to take a tour of some of the most popular exotic turning woods with a 20 piece or 48 piece Exotic Turning Blank Assortment.  If pen turning is your game, you’ll find a huge selection of pen blanks here at Rockler, including a number of interesting and unusual acrylic and Inlace Acrylester man-made blanks. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for good old fashioned domestic turning stock, you’ll find a variety of sized or ready to turn blanks in all of the most common domestic species.

Or, maybe you’ve been meaning to try the all time classic turning project: a baseball bat. We’ve got hand-selected Baseball Bat Blanks in Ash and Maple that are all ready the lathe. To give you an idea of how that might turn out - for you and perhaps some (other?) lucky kid – we’ll leave you with this sample from our bat blank customer reviews:

"My son needed to do a woods shop project. He is very big in baseball so it was a baseball bat he chose. The wood was great to work with he is very proud of the bat it is on display at his school ‘til the end of the school year. He has taken it outside and tried it out - works GREAT. It came very fast, very nice bat blank finally produce can out great thanks."

Bonnie, from Barron, WI

"I turned a 30" bat for my 9 year old grandson who wants to be the next Albert Pujols. It turned our better than I expected and he and my son both were very happy with it. I couldn't be more pleased."

Gregory Wapelhorst, from Pearl, MS

"I made the first bat from the ash blank for my grandson. I am now making the second bat out of the maple blank so I can compare the two. Great product."

Roger Noebel, from Irvine, CA

"I bought the bat blank to make a bat for my Grandson Kelton. He is 2-1/2 years old so we needed a 24 inch bat. The wood was perfect and turned very well. I did not know whether to get the Ash or Maple. I tried the ash. I am using the other piece to make an 8 inch pepper mill. Great Service from Rockler and a good project. I can't wait to see Kelton's face."

Laddie G. Matusek, from Palacios, TX

(Read more reviews)

As the product reviews keep piling up on the Rockler website, we’re finding more and more examples of truly great work done by our customers. We really need to feature more on the Rockler Blog. To get started, here’s a truly striking example of inlay work employing the ready to use thin lumber that we offer for the purpose. It was posted recently by Bob Shultz, along with this review:

“I used 1/8" African Padauk and Purple Heart for a table top inlay project and am very pleased with the color and quality of the wood.”

We think it’s a great example of inlay work, and of our thin stock lumber. The technique, if you’re not familiar with it, involves cutting the desired pattern pieces out of thin pieces of stock, tracing the pattern onto the receiving surface, routing and chiseling out the recess, and gluing the pieces in place. Judging by the shape and the quality of the work, we’re guessing the example you see here involved a good deal of careful scroll-sawing, hand fitting of parts and delicate chiseling and filing. If you’d like to try something similar, but don’t think you have the time or patience for anything quite so demanding, there is an easier way.

With Rockler’s Inlay Bushing and Bit with Removable Collar, you’ll be able to cut perfectly matching inlays and recesses using a single pattern. Simply use the guide bushing without the removable collar to cut the inlay components by following the contour of your patterns. Snapping the solid brass collar onto the bushing will situate the router bit in exactly the right place in relation to the pattern to cut an exactly matching recess in the receiving material. You will be limited to more curvilinear shapes due to the circular shape of the guide bushing, but it’s a small price to pay for the ease and precision the tool hands you.

Or, if you prefer to follow a predetermined plan, you could go with Rockler’s patriotic Presidential Dollar Intarsia Plan. Intarsia – as it is currently practiced – also takes advantage of the wealth of patterns and colors available to the woodworker, and typically adds a degree of three-dimensionality. The Presidential Dollar plan was designed for Rockler by intarsia’s leading expert Judy Gale Roberts, and can be completed without a lot of challenging inlay to recess matching. If you decide to give it a try, be sure to read the intarsia plan customer reviews for a couple of helpful tips. And if you like it, consider picking up a copy of Judy’s intarsia book for loads more patterns and some great instruction in the craft.

Marquetry offers another way to create pictures and patterns with wood. Instead of using thin pieces of timber, marquetry is constructed using wood veneers. And while marquetry graces some of the finest furniture ever made, it also turns out to be a great sport for anyone who’s short on space and has a limited supply of tools. In fact, with just a few hand veneering tools, you can make designs in wood that are as intricate and complex as you like. And since it doesn’t rely on power tools or bulky, dusty equipment, you can complete the majority of a marquetry project while sitting at your kitchen table.  You’ll find a great selection of veneers at Rockler, along with a couple of excellent marquetry books and DVDs to help you get started on the right foot.

Many thanks to Bob for sending us the photo. We hope it inspires other Rockler customers to try their hand at one of the many ways to “paint with wood”, to show us the results when they’re done.

By now, we’re guessing most of you have heard about a certain remarkable tree and the unique, exceptionally figured Bubinga lumber it’s yielded to the benefit of a few lucky woodworkers. We’re making that guess, in part, because the interest in this rare lumber-buying opportunity has been so widespread that we ran through our supply of 4/4 stock available by the board foot at lightening speed, and as of this posting, are only offering Curly Waterfall Bubinga lumber in the form of sensational, if slightly more cost-intensive, large-dimension slabs. For the general woodworking population, that may not be the most happy news. To you, we can say this: stay tuned. We’re not promising anything – but you never know.

If your tool of choice happens to be a lathe, on the other hand, luck is on your side. While the stock lasts, Rockler is offering truly unique Bubinga Bowl Turning Blanks in a variety of sizes – all cut from the very same tree that’s been causing all the stir.

Of course we couldn’t leave turners out of the loop - it’s such an obvious application for the material. Despite its hardness (heavier and harder than maple) Bubinga is a prized turning species. It has a fine texture, machines well, and polishes unaided to an almost glossy surface. In terms of color, even an “everyday” hunk of Bubinga has plenty to offer: namely, a subtle range of rich reddish brown tones punctuated with darker grain striping. On top of that, this particular Bubinga offers a striking grain pattern - uncommon for the species - and comes from a tree of uncommon proportions and notoriety.

Right now, blanks are available for everything from small decorative pieces on up to show-stopping bowls and platters. You’ll also find a few larger dimension chunks, any of which would make a great set, or could represent one-of-a-kind opportunity for oval turners. Whichever way you might decide to go, we’ll offer the same advice that we did when the board-foot lumber hit the market: if you’re interested, don’t procrastinate. We don’t expect these unique blanks to last long, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.

As many of you know, Rockler was recently fortunate enough to get in on a truly unique opportunity in the world of exotic lumber. Many of you, in fact, have had a chance to read Woodworker’s Journal Editor Rob Johnstone’s article in the April 2008 issue describing how one very special hunk of wood made its way to the lumber bins here at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware.  For those still not in the know, we’d like to take this opportunity to get the word out once again, so that no one misses this once-in-a-lifetime chance to pick up a few feet of highly uncommon and remarkably figured Bubinga lumber.

What makes this particular pile of lumber so inspirational isn’t just that it’s cut from a prized and not all that readily available species, but the fact that it comes from one of the most amazing trees any of us have ever seen. It was huge, as you can clearly see. Even more importantly, the wood is figured in a both uncommon and beautiful pattern that Rocky Mehta of West Penn Hardwoods – who brought the opportunity to our attention and was a key figure in seeing the project through – has aptly dubbed “curly waterfall”.  Once it’s shined up, this rippling, undulating pattern adds appreciable depth and visual interest to the subtle range of reddish browns and purple veining that even a “run of the mill” piece of Bubinga brings to the table.

Bubinga (Guibourtia Tessmanni or Guibourtia Demeusei) is an extremely dense, stiff wood that resists denting, takes stain well, and finishes beautifully. Rotary cut veneer form the species, known as Kevasingo, is highly esteemed and exhibits a wild, swirling, veined grain pattern. Bubinga lumber isn’t widely know for its exciting figure  (this stuff is definitely an exception) but is valued nonetheless for its other fine qualities and is typically used to make decorative pieces ranging from furniture to knife handles. It works and saws well, but is a little on the mineral-intensive side, so decent carbide tooling for power tools and a willingness to sharpen hand tools is advised. The tree itself likes things wet, and prefers rain-saturated forests, where it can reach a height of 130 to 150 feet with boles of up to 70 feet before the first limb.

Now, you too can have your very own piece of this-one-of a-kind tree. Curly Waterfall Bubinga lumber is available in 4/4 thickness (lumber lingo for 1”) in widths ranging from 6” to 14” (depending on availability) and lengths from 20” to 60”. Order as much as you’d like, but do it soon. There’s a pretty good-sized stack down there, but it’s not unlimited, and the interest is likely to keep going strong. Or consider this option: as you might expect from tree of this magnitude, there are a number of impressively large slabs on the pile, and they’re available individually. Just about any one would make a knockout desk, conference table, bar, or anything that calls for a single very large piece of lumber and a decided “wow” factor.  If you’ve got an important commission on the horizon, or just want to pop for a piece of wood the likes of which neither you nor anyone you know has ever seen, just call 1-800-279-4441 and ask for a quote.

There’s just one more thing: you might notice on your way through the checkout that this unique load of lumber is priced a tad bit higher than your typical piece of – oh, say – red oak. But it doesn’t look like red oak either, and nothing else like it is likely to come along anytime soon. And unlike most other lumber deals, it does come with one unexpected bonus: the feeling that you’ve done something meaningful to help ensure that your kids, grandkids, or whoever else you’d like to see happy in future generations, will have the opportunity to work with and enjoy a rich variety of lumber. Rockler is donating 10 percent of the proceeds from every piece sold to the Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program. So far, though, it seems that most people have found the expense well worth it. At least that’s what we gather from Curly Waterfall Bubinga customer reviews like these:

WOW!!! What a beautiful piece of wood. I showed my husband the article in Woodworkers Journal about the Bubinga, his reply "go buy some!", so I did. I wanted small pieces for pen making, little did I realize the cost. After turning 2 cross cut pieces of the Bubinga I realized the price was cheap in relation to the amazing beauty of this truly "Once in a lifetime " piece of wood. Unfortunately, when it's gone it is gone......I still want some small cutoffs guys!!!

Submitted by Debra White, from Las Cruces, NM

This is expensive wood, now comes the "but" it has to be one of the most beautiful pieces I've seen. I got two 60" and one 30" boards. They were packaged very well. On a scale of 1 to 5 I would rate these a 6 and shipping a 5. This is truly a once in a lifetime chance. 

Submitted by Tom Yost, from Fremont, OH

I ordered a 12 inches by 48 inches 5/4 piece of the curly waterfall bubinga on my first order. I was very impressed not only with the figure but also with the way in which it was milled perfectly. It was dead flat without a hint of a bow, twist,etc. I was so pleased that I immediately ordered 4 more pieces 8 inches by 48 inches 4/4 thick before the supply was exhausted. Once again, all four pieces were perfect. Thank you for offering such high quality and unique wood to those of us who aren't professional woodworkers. Please be on the lookout for similar quality wood in other species.

Submitted by Clinton A. Netherland M.D., from Bastrop, LA

Looking for something to jazz up your next project? Well, you’re in luck. 1200 new decorative molding options just poured into the rockler.com Wood Products department, adding to our already healthy supply of architectural moldings. You’ll now find just about anything you could ever want in lineal moldings, swags, rosettes, corbels, fretwork and everything else ornamental.

The new offerings are made by Bendix Architectural Products, a company that’s been carving and shaping away at some of the finest quality architectural ornament since 1923. You’ll find everything from down-home rope molding to extravagantly carved acanthus corbels in a variety of wood species and sizes, all ready to attach to your projects and finish.

Together with our selection of furniture legs, custom cabinet doors, inlays and edge bandings, and other wood products, they make up a furniture building resource that really has you covered. It’s a great opportunity to let your imagination run wild. How about a nice cherry entertainment center with arch-top raised panel doors, laurel swags in basswood, pierced ivy-pattern fretwork, a couple 3’’ hummingbird inlays, and bun feet?  Or possibly a maple highboy with cherry half-rope molding, claw-and-ball foot cabriole legs, and a liberal application of variously-sized grape onlays in red oak? The possibilities are practically endless...

There’s just no way around it: Moisture in the air causes wood to change in size and often in shape. Consider it an invitation to read up on the physical realities that make changes wood moisture content a basic aspect of the craft, and to equip yourself with one of the most fundamental of all woodworking tools: a moisture meter.

Understanding the underlying principles of the wood/water relationship is the first step. There are numerous books explaining the effects of moisture on wood, drying techniques, and how to ready your projects for ever-changing relative humidity. R. Bruce Hoadley’s Understanding Wood is held by many to be the best, and covers moisture content thoroughly, along with just everything else you'd ever need to know about the physical properties of wood. We're sure that all serious woodworkers have a copy of it - or a similar book - in their library, and are experts on the effects of wood moisture content. For everyone else, here are a few of the basics.

Wood moisture content is the ratio, expressed as a percentage, of the weight of its water content to the weight of the wood fibers if they were completely dry. For example, if a piece of lumber weighs 10 pounds, and would theoretically weigh 5 pounds if it were absolutely devoid of water, then it is said to have a moisture content of 100 percent.

Usable lumber is produced by reducing the moisture content of green wood (sometimes well over 200 percent) to 12 - 18 percent by air drying, or to 6 - 10 percent by kiln drying. The purpose of doing this, of course, is to prepare the wood for the average moisture content of the air in which ultimately, it will take up residence as part of a chair, table, cabinet or what have you.

If a piece of wood is in perfect equilibrium with relative humidity of the air surrounding it, it will neither absorb moisture from the air, nor will the air absorb moisture from it. This state of perfect balance is called “equilibrium moisture content” (EMC). For the woodworker, equilibrium is a good thing, because it means that the wood will stay (for practical purposes) the same size and shape.

In reality, of course, there are changes in humidity, and they can be dramatic, especially in climates where heating greatly reduces the relative humidity indoors during the winter months. Equilibrium moisture content is really an ideal. The best you can do is to accept the fact that wood is just going to move along with changes in the weather, and to take that into account in the way your design and build your projects. And you’ll have a lot easier time of it if you know something about the moisture content of the wood you’re using, and make a point of starting off with lumber that’s suitably dried. To begin doing, that you'll need a “moisture meter”.

There are two basic types of moisture meter: Pin-style moisture meters and the “pinless” variety. A pin-style meter has two probes, or "pins" that are pressed into the wood; the meter measures moisture content by measuring the resistance of the wood as the conductor of an electrical current from one pin to the other. A pinless moisture meter uses radio waves to create an electro-magnetic field penetrating the wood. The meter measures the reaction of the radio waves to the moisture in the wood.

Which one should you choose? The Wagner Pinless Moisture Meter and the Mini-Ligno E/D Pin-Type Moisture Meter both give accurate readings of moisture content, and plenty of moisture reading range and sensitivity for most woodworking applications. But there are a couple of minor differences to consider:

The Wagner Pinless Moisture Meter penetrates to a depth of 1/2 inch, and will give you a good idea of what is going on inside the wood, and not just near the surface. And of course, the pinless variety won't leave two pinholes in your stock. The Wagner’s range of 4 – 22 percent is fairly narrow as moisture meters go, but you wouldn’t consider using anything outside of that range for most woodworking projects, anyway.

The Mini-Ligno pin-style moisture meter has one obvious advantage: It’s less expensive. (For that matter, if you’re really on a budget, there’s a more basic pin-type unit for even less.) The Mini-Ligno offers considerably more range than the Wagner, with a range of 6 – 55 percent. And while the upper end of the scale won’t help you much with the typical woodworking project, it can come in handy for checking construction lumber or green turning stock. It also has two species correction settings - compared with a correction chart for the Wagner – and an extra set of longer pins for deeper readings.

Adding either one to your tool collection, along with a reliable wood book, is an excellent way to begin side-stepping the frustrations that go along with ignoring moisture content: miter joints that pull apart, unexpected cupping or twisting, and a host of other surprise difficulties that can ruin a woodworker's day.

What’s the best way to invite success in frame and panel door construction? Take your time at the lumberyard. Below, a Woodworker’s Journal eZine reader gets some valuable advice on selecting and preparing wood for an ambitious raised panel door project.

I'm about to tackle a kitchen facelift with new doors and drawer fronts. I've done plenty of carpentry around the house but never furniture. I will need to make 18 raised-panel, pine doors ... mostly about 12" wide by 28" tall.

1. What width boards do you recommend for the glue-up for the panels?
2. How wide should the original stock be; i.e., would you cut 4" boards from a 12"?
3. Is the D select pine available from Home Depot sufficiently dry for cabinet making, and is it necessary to let it sit in the kitchen acclimatizing for a couple of weeks?
4. One last question, I seem to remember having read something once about the grain of the board having a top and a bottom (direction of growth?) and that when raising the panels, you get a smoother cut when orienting the board appropriately. Any clue?

A. Lee Grindinger: "The width of the boards in the glue-ups will depend on the stock you get. This issue has been a controversy in furniture making, but the present theory seems to be that wider boards are acceptable. Use the wider boards with the caveats I note below. An advantage that is yours is that the panels will be captive in their frames helping them remain flat.

"I would not hesitate to cut 4" boards from a 12" board; however, in construction grade lumber, narrower stock is cheaper than wider lumber. Get what you think you'll need.

"The D Select pine from Home Depot is probably fine as long as you finish drying it. Although I've never shopped for pine at Home Depot chances are good it's stamped S-Dry, which means the surface was dried to some percentage between 12% and 18%. Pine dries quickly so it should finish drying in your climate controlled space in a matter of several weeks. Be certain that there is air movement on all faces during this process. When you start building panels rip out any pith. Pith is the center of the tree, and the wood on either side of the center plays tug-of-war as the wood shrinks and the pith splits when this happens.

"Orienting the board as it grew in the tree will have little effect on the machining properties. You want to feed wood into any machine the same direction as you would run a chisel or plane into it. Having the grain running out of the board downwind of the cut will give you a cleaner cut. In the case of raising panels this is not always possible since you are doing all four edges, but do start out on an end-grain edge as you work around your board so you finish with a long grain cut. This will remove the tearout from your first end grain cut.

"You may consider calling a nearby hardwoods supplier and pricing out kiln-dried pine. Look in the Yellow Pages under Hardwoods and make a few calls. It would be better if you started with dried thicker stock. If you start out with 3/4" stock from Home Depot it leaves you little thickness for flattening, planing and sanding."

A. Michael Dresdner: "The width of the boards, and whether you re-cut wide boards or not, has less effect on stability than choosing the wood correctly. If you pick properly dried wood that is straight, flat, and free of cupping or twisting, it will most likely stay that way. The message here is don't try to cut movement out of less-than-ideal boards, or be deceived into thinking that recutting wood changes its nature. Ideally, use vertical grain (quartered) wood, but lacking access to that, simply choose well.

"As for being dry enough, I would be skeptical about the moisture content of box store wood, as you don't know how it was shipped or stored. Either check it with a moisture meter, or let it acclimate in your kitchen.

"As for "growth direction," I suspect you are referring to runout, a measure of how much up and down grain also goes into or out of the board. Less runout will make for smoother cuts, as will routing with the runout. I suppose you could glue up panels with the runout in opposite directions on each side edge so that all routing, which goes around the panel in one direction, is with the runout, but that would leave the panel with alternating shadows when viewed at an angle. At best it is a minor issue."

From the Woodworker's Journal eZine Archives

Once you have all of the necessary flat, properly dried, defect free lumber on hand and laid out so that the grain direction will cooperate, all that’s left is to make the doors. Nothing to it, right? Or does it sound like an ordeal? It doesn’t have to be. With a few basic woodworking skills, a little instruction, and a few key pieces of equipment, you’re chances of success are excellent, even if you’ve never made a door in your life.

As for the instruction, consider picking up a copy of Bill Hylton’s Frame and Panel Magic. You’ll find detailed instruction on making a variety of frame and panel door styles along with tips on choosing the right equipment and advice on setting up to move through the process safely and efficiently. Or, if you’d like a more abbreviated look at the procedure right now, read Rockler’s article “Raised Panel Door Tools and Techniques”.

And here’s another way to end up with perfectly flat, professional looking cabinet doors: Have someone else make them. That’s a good option if what you’re most interested in is the finished product. And it may be a better deal that you first think. Add up the cost materials, any extra equipment need and the time you’ll invest in making your own doors and, as many professional cabinets shops have, you might just find that having doors made for you is a steal. Check out Rockler’s Custom Door and Drawer Front Program for the details. Chances are you’ll find the exact door style and wood species you’re looking for. 

 

Are some woods more prone to table saw burn than others? Yes, but it shouldn’t matter all that much. With an appropriate (and appropriately sharp) saw blade, correct fence alignment and the proper feed rate, you’ll get clean cuts nearly all of the time, as three experts point out below to a Woodworker’s Journal eZine reader:

Q. This woodworker is having problems with his table saw burning hardwoods on one side of the blade. He heard that some hardwoods are more prone to burning than others. Is that true?

A. (Michael Dresdner) "Yes, it is true. Cherry is a good example of a wood prone to burning. However, the problem is most likely in the saw setup, the blade trueness, or the speed the wood is being fed into it. A well set-up saw with a good blade will not burn wood that is fed into it at the right speed. Take another look at your setup - it is too soon to be blaming the wood.

A. (Rick White) "First off, cherry and mahogany are more prone to burn when you're cutting them, so make sure you don't stop in the middle of a cut or feed the material too slow when working with these woods. There are other factors that cause burning, including:

• Dull blades
• The saw is not square with the fence
• Wood could be warped and pushing itself into the blade as it's cut
 
Check the alignment of the blade and fence once, and then check it again. That's the likely culprit."

A. (Ian Kirby) "It very much sounds like the fence isn't aligned parallel to the blade. Slow feeding, even with a brand new carbide blade, will cause burning because there's too much friction. Check that the fence is parallel and feed the wood faster (it's practically impossible to feed too fast - the saw motor will bog down before you could damage the blade).
 
A. (Ellis Walentine) Certain woods, whether hard or soft, are more prone to burning from the friction of a saw blade or router bit. If your wood is burning on just one side, it suggests that you need to align your table saw blade with your rip fence.

You can reduce burning by using a sharp rip blade for ripping and a sharp ATB (alternate top bevel) blade for crosscutting. Fewer teeth will produce a slightly rougher cut but will generate less heat and burn less."

From the Woodworker's Journal eZine archives

It may be impossible to entirely eliminate table saw burn. Lumber that’s been improperly dried or has other anomalies, especially in a burn-prone species, can end up with a few marks no matter how much care you take. But by following the advice offered above, you can make ugly, burnt cut-edges a very rare occurrence.

As a first step, make sure your saw is adjusted and aligned correctly. You’ll find the basics of the procedure in Rockler’s article, “Improving Table Saw Performance”.

The type, condition and quality of your saw blade is the next place to look. Your blade may be perfectly good and just in need of sharpening. But if it’s not, investing in a good quality table saw blade – and one that’s appropriate for the job - can make a world on difference.

If you’re not sure what makes one blade better or more appropriate than another, read through Rockler’s “Saw Blades 101” for a basic education in saw blade types and terminology, or head for “Choosing the Right Saw Blade” for help in picking out a specific blade.

In the early stages of a project when you're just starting to consider materials, do you ever find yourself thinking, "Hmm, I bet a nice piece of rotten maple would be just about right"? If you're a woodturner, or any woodworker who's interested in exploring the visually exotic, you might. You'd be thinking about the unique figures and patterns that occur only in "spalted" wood.

Spalted wood isn't exactly rotten, but it's on its way. Spalting occurs in an early stage of the decay process, when various colonies of fungi stake their claims to a piece of fallen wood.  The characteristic blue-black lines that run through spalted wood actually represent the lines of demarcation between incompatible colonies of micro-organisms. But the specific biological facts aren't what interest most woodworkers in spalted wood, it's the fact that nothing else looks quite like it.

One way to get your hands on spalted wood - obviously - is to go on a field trip and gather your own naturally occurring specimens. You can also give Mother Nature a hand and "spalt your own". Either way, it helps to have a little background information.  Fortunately, there's no shortage of information on spalted wood, how to work with it, and how to make it. Here are a few resources:

If you access to Fine Woodworking's article archives (Taunton Press charges a nominal monthly fee for access to hundreds of articles) a good place to start is with sculptor Mark Lindquist's "Spalted Wood", which appeared way back in issue #7.  It's still one of the best overviews of the natural spalting process, how it plays out in various species, where to look for spalted wood, and how to prepare it for use.

"Spalting, a Fungus Amongus" by Andrew Hilton covers everything from how spalting works to working with spalted wood to making your own - and it's free.

If you don't happen to have a hardwood forest handy, you'll be glad to hear that creating your own spalted wood isn't a difficult process. Read "Intentional Spalting" from the Woodweb Knowledge Base for great discussion of various methods for encouraging and controlling the spalting process. "Producing Spalted Wood", published by the Forest Service's Forest Products Laboratory, offers a good overview and includes more technical information on the types of fungus involved in the process.

Finally, if you have a beautiful piece of spalted wood, but you're wondering whether it’s gone a little too far, you'll find advice on shore it up in "Strengthening Spalted Wood", here on the Rockler Blog.

 

Spalted wood is highly prised for its unusual patterns and colorations, but it's not necessarily easy to work.  "Spalting" occurs in an early stage of the decay process, when various colonies of fungi stake their claims to a piece of fallen wood.  The characteristic blue-black lines that run through spalted wood actually represent the lines of demarcation between incompatible colonies of micro-organisms and, while beautiful to look at, they mean that the wood is in an early to mid-stage of decomposition.  Below, Ellis Walentine and Michael Dresdner offer some expert advice on dealing with spalted wood that's gone a little soft. 

Michael Dresdner: "Assuming the spots aren't too mushy, you can pot them with a wood hardener designed to soak in and stabilize rotted wood. They come in two versions — a one package pour on and a two part thin epoxy with names like "Woodrot" and the like. In my opinion, the epoxy is the better of the two. You can get some from System Three here in Seattle — they have ads in most of the woodworking magazines. Once stabilized, you can treat it as any other wood. The epoxy will affect the way it takes stains, but most folks don't stain spalted wood. It will not affect finish adhesion, and rarely affects glue adhesion.

Ellis Walentine: "The mushy spots of any spalted wood are the areas where the spalting has proceeded too far. The best treatment in some cases may be to scrap the wood. If you can't afford (or bring yourself) to do that, there's a type of epoxy that is very thin and foul-smelling designed to harden up these soft fibers (See Michael's answer above).

Otherwise, in situations where the mushiness is not a major functional issue, you can just proceed with sanding and finishing, and use it without trying to harden up those fibers. Avoid pure oil and Danish oil finishes, because they will penetrate deeply into the soft spots and darken them considerably. A coat of wax is the least apt to discolor the soft spots, but if you simply must build a film finish, give the wood a couple thin coats of blond shellac to seal the fibers."

From the Woodworker's Journal eZine 2000 archives.