Sand Shading?

[Russell Neyman]

I've been fascinated by the dramatic effects that the ancient art of sand-shading gives to parquet wood floors, and I'm wondering if the same techniques could be applied to segmented bowls or, even, partially joined bowls (two halves). Now, the samples I've seen are veneer, but I'm wondering if I can do it to the edge of dimensional wood. Has anyone tried it?

For those who are glancing at this out of curiosity, sand-shading is the process of slightly browning an edge or corner of wood by baking it in hot sand. Effectively, it creates a variation in the hue that tends to give joined pieces a rounded look. I've included a fairly good example below. Note that the lighter wood is actually a monotone, but the sand-shading at the end of the strips that appear to pass underneath the design have a sort of shadow.

veneer-shade.jpg

[Jamie Donaldson]

I have seen this technique used in marquetry by the old timers, and wondered how hot the sand would have to be heated to tone the wood?

[Brian Effinger]

I would think that it only works on veneers because it is so thin, and you're not really removing much wood after you shade it. If you put a segment in it would get the outside of the wood, but that would be turned away. Not really sure - just my gut feeling.

[Wells Jacobson]

If you are interested, Tommy Mac"s recent show "Roughcuts", which I think broadcasts on PBS, highlighted this technique.

[Jeff Bratt]

I've only done this with veneer - I don't think it would work very well with thicker pieces. There would be most likely be warping issues...

The sand is fairly hot - I learned from Paul Schurch, and his guidance was the 5-10 sec rule. Hold the veneer piece in the hot sand for 5-10 sec and it should come out shaded. If it's not hot enough, you just dry out the wood - too hot and it literally burns up. So the sand is a few hundred degrees - but I don't have a good way to measure exactly.

[Russell Neyman]

These concerns are the same that I've had all along, but I think I'll do some experiments with various temperatures and types of wood. It will be interesting to see if I can make anything happen.