Sanding segmented turnings of vastly different colors?

[Chris Yarish]

When sanding a segmented turning (of say, a maple, a walnut and padauk) on the lathe, how do you deal with/avoid/prevent discoloration of the lighter species by a darker one, or the bleed of the red into the others?

[Mike Vickery]

Good luck I will let a segementer answer but will warn you Padauk wood actually has a natural dye in it which makes it very hard to not get bleeding.

I learned this the hardway after making a padauk and maple chess board.

[Bill Wyko]

I'll chime in on this one If you look at the vessel i just finished you'll see that I had to overcome that very same issue. The key is to sand from light wood to dark wood. Move your paper to a clean spot constantly and go through sandpaper like someone else is paying for it. No other way that I know of.

[David Walser]

Would it help to apply a sanding sealer before sanding with even your coarsest grit? I would think the sealer might reduce the bleeding of the dark into the light. I don't know, cause I've never tried it.

[Chris Yarish]

Ok....to simplify because I rarely use padauk...
If I were to do something in maple (or light colored species) and walnut...??

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Chris, first you would be wise to avoid using padauk. With most of my segmented work, I rarely sand raw wood. I use my lathe tools to create the best surface possible (shear scraping). Then I apply sanding sealer. Currently my favorite is Bullseye Universal. It dries quickly, so after an hour or so, I shear-scrape the sealer off using a hand-held cabinet style scraper. I repeat this process numerous times (3 to 5) until the wood pores are fully filled. By that time, the surface only needs light sanding starting with 220-grit (or even 320). With the pores filled, colored wood dust has no place to hide. I've even finished a few pieces this way without ever sanding at all. In this photo, the front right-hand piece of Madagascar rosewood and birdseye maple was never sanded. This type of rosewood was so full of colored extractives that I couldn’t apply sanding sealer without the color running. So I simply applied very light coats of spray Deft until the surface was sealed. I did the cabinet scraper trick between coats, but never sanded it.

[Bob Opsitos]

The only ones I've sanded with completely mixed species were maple and cherry. No problems there. I did also do a maple and paduak segmented pen that I sanded without obvious issue.

I did do a trophy in maple with a paduak accent ring at the top that I sanded without issue. I was very concerned as I like to wet sand 320 and up with MS. But no bleeding problems.

[Bill Stevener]

Use 3 different pcs. of sand paper, one for the light, one for the med. and one for the dark wood.

[Bill Wyko]

I have some of that sealer. I'll have to try it next time.

[Don Vito]

I have encountered a similar problem with natural edged bowls--especially when a darker bark covers a lighter outer layer of wood and a darker inner layer of wood. (Silver maple & cherry for example). Often I sand along the outer wood/bark layer by hand to avoid crossing. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

I'll have to try the sanding sealer.