Yea, Wiki says they are closely related, but the wood is very different for sure....
Thanks Doug, First I cleaned out the cracks and widened the hairline cracks with a pointy dremel tip. The cracks that went all the way through were taped from behind and/or plugged with shreds of leather. I used 2-part 5 min epoxy for the resin mixed in small batches with the mica powder. With an area facing up, slather on the resin working it into the cracks and tried to leave the resin proud of the surface, rotate the piece a bit and repeat. It probably took about 10 batches. It was almost all blue and covered in resin after that. Put it back on the lathe and turned away the resin down to the wood surface, then went back over it to fill voids with more resin. It was a lot of work, Im hoping I can streamline the process in the future. One could submerge the entire blank in a form and use casting resin, then turn away the excess, but that would take a lot of resin, and I think a pressure pot is used for that method, which I dont have...
You are right, Barry, a pressure pot and a lot of resin required for that option. A pricey alternative with most of the resin ending up as wispy strings everywhere. Ask me how I know that…..
