Ron Swanson Jr. Posted June 25, 2020 Report Share Posted June 25, 2020 Howdy Does anyone have experience or advice on prepping and finishing leopardwood? I have a small piece that I'm planning to use as the floating panel in the lid of a small keepsake box. When I took a smoothing plane to it... The little spots don't exactly plane well as they're harder than the wood that surrounds them. For boxes like this I typically use an oil finish (I really like Gen Finishes Wood Bowl oil, so that's probably what I would like to use) with some wax on top of that. Anyway, I don't have much to experiment with, so I'm hoping for some guidance. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted June 25, 2020 Report Share Posted June 25, 2020 No help with your question but that is a beautiful piece of wood 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gee-dub Posted June 25, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 25, 2020 Leopard wood with Seal Coat de-waxed shellac followed by an oil/varnish blend. 1:1:1 mineral spirits, BLO and poly if I recall correctly. The Seal Coat was to keep the Peruvian 'walnut' from bleeding into the leopard wood. Depending on what you are doing you could skip it. These are sanded with a hard cork block with the abrasive drawn very tight. You want a flat unyielding abrasive surface and a steady walk through the grits. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted June 26, 2020 Report Share Posted June 26, 2020 About you question. Try a card scraper or cabinet scraper if you do not want to use sandpaper> 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Swanson Jr. Posted June 29, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2020 On 6/25/2020 at 2:05 PM, gee-dub said: Leopard wood with Seal Coat de-waxed shellac followed by an oil/varnish blend. 1:1:1 mineral spirits, BLO and poly if I recall correctly. The Seal Coat was to keep the Peruvian 'walnut' from bleeding into the leopard wood. Depending on what you are doing you could skip it. These are sanded with a hard cork block with the abrasive drawn very tight. You want a flat unyielding abrasive surface and a steady walk through the grits. Gee Dub , thank you so much! This is great info and exactly what I was looking for. Sorry for the delay responding, the notifications been doing to my spam folder. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gee-dub Posted June 30, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 30, 2020 Hope it helps. Like many figured woods the look we love is often due to a variation in density and grain direction in the wood. There in lies the challenge. I enjoy getting a nice look from some of our coarser choices, shedua, peruvian walnut, lacewood, leopardwood, even the curly and birds-eye boards add a little work to get the surface we're after. Avoid a ROS or other sander that has a soft pad. Even my "hard" rated pad has to be used with care on things like tiger maple. They are fine for the first couple of grits but, you've got to be careful not to end up with a tiger maple washboard . I switch to a hard cork or rubber block once I get to 220 and use it through whatever grit I stop at. Sand a piece of leopardwood scrap to 600 or 1000 and buff it on a wheel with some compound. It will give you some interesting ideas for detail elements on future pieces; pulls, quirts, proud-plugs. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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