On Apr 28, 12:40 pm, "Stoutman" <.@.> wrote:
> I bought some sapele today for a step stool I am going to >make (mothers day). Never used this stuff before. The >boards I bought have a really nice wavy grain Pattern. Looking forward to the finished product.
>
> Ever use it? Work nice?
One small project, used it on a lid for a box. Keep in mind, all
pieces of wood are different, and are only globally connected with
specific traits.
The pieces I had were brittle, splintered easy, and when sawn came off
in chips. It glued up OK, but it was prone to some tearout when
planing it out. It was miserable to sand and made me cough and sneeze
a lot.
BUT...
The finished piece was a knockout. No pain, no gain, eh? I put a
couple of super thinned coats of BLO on it, let the top sit for about
a week. Went back in and shot a few coats of Old Masters lacquer on
it, and let it sit for another three weeks or so and knocked off a
little of the shine with some Liberon 0000 and Johnson's paste wax.
You don't have to be much of a craftsman to get satisfactory ooohs and
ahhhs when you have a nice piece of this stuff properly finished.
Just make sure you light that grain up with a good finish as the grain
on some of the pieces is nothing short of stunning.
I wouldn't build a bookcase out of the stuff, but for jewelry or
keepsake boxes, it is great.
Of course, YMMV.
Peter Huebner wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, .@. says...
>
>>I bought some sapele today for a step stool I am going to make (mothers
>>day). Never used this stuff before. The boards I bought have a really
>>nice wavy grain pattern. Looking forward to the finished product.
>>
>>Ever use it? Work nice?
>
>
> Guy we had staying with us last week (stranded hitchhiker) turned out to be a
> woodworker. He's been working with sapele quite a bit, and mentioned it was
> hard on tools and that the dust was noxious when we were comparing notes on
> different timbers.
>
> -P.
>
It is also very common to see this used in European wooden ship model kits.
Typical size might be 2 x 5 mm strips used, for example, to plank the hull.
John
In article <[email protected]>, .@. says...
> I bought some sapele today for a step stool I am going to make (mothers
> day). Never used this stuff before. The boards I bought have a really
> nice wavy grain pattern. Looking forward to the finished product.
>
> Ever use it? Work nice?
Guy we had staying with us last week (stranded hitchhiker) turned out to be a
woodworker. He's been working with sapele quite a bit, and mentioned it was
hard on tools and that the dust was noxious when we were comparing notes on
different timbers.
-P.
--
=========================================
firstname dot lastname at gmail fullstop com
"Stoutman" <.@.> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I bought some sapele today for a step stool I am going to make (mothers
>day). Never used this stuff before. The boards I bought have a really
>nice wavy grain pattern. Looking forward to the finished product.
>
> Ever use it? Work nice?
>
When you see heavy ribbon figured "mahogany" paneling, it is sapele.
Obviously the figure can cause problems.
"Andy Dingley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sat, 28 Apr 2007 13:40:57 -0400, "Stoutman" <.@.> wrote:
>
>>Never used this stuff before.
>
> You're too young to remember the '70s (the Sapele decade) aren't you?
>
> I'd never use it. Not a bad timber, but too many bad memories of ugly
> over-used veneer over ugly chipboard-box 'furniture'.
Are you talking about red oak? :-)
I saw some tables while I was gallery hopping in New Hope Pa. that were
sapele and maple that knocked my socks off. Any wood poorly presented is
atrocious. I made an end table out of scrap red oak that I had, stained it
with Van Dyke brown and applied shellac that actually looks pretty good. But
the majority of red oak furniture I've seen, IMO, is atrocious.
"Stoutman" <.@.> wrote:
>I bought some sapele today for a step stool I am going to make (mothers
>day). Never used this stuff before. The boards I bought have a really
>nice wavy grain pattern. Looking forward to the finished product.
>
>Ever use it? Work nice?
I haven't, but you will find this of interest:
http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/mSinger/sapeleBed/sapelleBed1.asp
--
Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.
"Stoutman" <.@.> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I bought some sapele today for a step stool I am going to make (mothers
>day). Never used this stuff before. The boards I bought have a really
>nice wavy grain pattern. Looking forward to the finished product.
>
> Ever use it? Work nice?
>
> --
> Stoutman
> www.garagewoodworks.com
>
If you have problems handplaning the wood, try planing cross grain. I don't
know for sure what you get when you buy sapele. I think it is one of the
African mahoganies.