padauk

[sawdustus]

I cut padauk for the 1st time yesterday. I love the color of the wood now that I have seen it in person. WOW! Is the dust red! Doesn't seem to stain my hands or clothes but I think I will wash them separately just in case. No wise guys, I won't remove my hands to put them in the washing machine along with the clothes. I presume I can use poly on it with no trouble since it is being used in some of Roy Kings Art Basket patterns that I got from Scroller.

I'm not sure how much of a sensitizer the wood is because the sites I went to gave conflicting reports. One said rare and one said moderate to high. I'm not a real allergic person but I don't want to become one either. My wife however is, so I am careful about bringing any kind of wood dust into the house.

Any opinions from those of you who have used it? How about purple and yellowheart? Again conflicting information.

george

[pmac53]

Hi George. I have cut Padauk quite a bit without any problems. However, I do need to say that I don't have any allergy problems that I am aware of. The dust hasn't bothered me at all. It is a beautiful wood used in the right places to highlight projects.

[handibunny]

George, I've never had a problem with the exotics regarding allergies. However, padauk dust likes to migrate into pores of adjacent wood, and if you use a clear coat finish, it likes to bleed orange, so you need to use just light coats. I've had some problems with it using poly finish, but none with shellac or lacquer.

[Trout]

hey George, wash those clothes seperate.....
I know, I ended up with a whole load of white under cloths with a slight tint of red to them.....

Trout

[Jan]

Padauk is gorgeous wood and fun to use. Be sure to use dust masks any time you cut wood. Some of the worst are the exotics as well as any kind of cedar. Lung problems are no fun at all and can be stirred up with fine dust in the air.

Jan

[lkbraa]

George, ditto on what Carole and Trout said...wash seperately and watch your finishes!!! I have a batch of pertty redish pink t-shirts too - lol! If you are mixing woods in a project, you need to carefully apply oil or finishes to the different areas. Padauk and Cocobolo have been my nemisis in regards to that. And really make sure that you clean up the sawdust, including any sanding belts and sanding areas! Yellowheart and Purpleheart do not seem to bleed hardly at all...but they sure do finish up well!!!
Good Luck!

[Xray]

I cut alot of Padauk on CNC. Shapes very nice, and some cuts are red beyond belief.
It does leave a very fine and invasive dust, I vac up as much the escapes my dust boot as I can. Due to it being so fine and dense, it doesn't seem to get airborn as much as less dense woods do.
I had dedicated Padauk sandpaper, once you use some on this wood, you don't want to use it on any other.

[pat c]

I've never had any problems with the dust but one thing to remember is the pretty reddish orange color will eventually change to a pretty walnut brown. That is unless you hide the work in a closet. Sad but true. Pat

[JimSawyer]

I've had the same problem as Pat c...It was sad to see such a brilliant orange turn so very dark....

[sawdustus]

Thanks for all the advice about the migrating dust, poly bleeding, stains in clothing etc.. I will be careful about the finishing and since most of my 1/4" piece is for parts of Roy Kings Art Baskets, I will go against my grain and finish the pieces first and then glue them up. I didn't know that it fades to brown in sunlight. How long does it take for that to happen? How about using a UV resistant finish?

I will post some pics as soon as I get them finished but it may be two weeks since we are taking a short vacation to visit some friends in Indiana at the end of this week.

george

[Fran1942]

The manager of the Rockler store I go to told me to wipe padauk down with 100% mineral spirits before putting a finish on it. He said this gets the woods natural oil out of it. the oil is what causes it to turn brown.
Fran

[handibunny]

I learned something about teak, also a very oily wood, that might apply to padauk. Since the oil in teak sometimes makes gluing up tricky, the usual advice is to wipe it down with mineral spirits, then glue it. But I read somewhere else that doing that might actually bring up more oil, and it was better to sand the wood right before gluing it, before more oil had a chance to come up.

I don't know which advice is correct, but I do know that I always sanded my rings right before gluing them, and never had a problem. So maybe some of this might also apply to controlling the oil with padauk. I once applied poly over shellac on padauk, and had a mess you would not believe. Lacquer over shellac gives me no problems with padauk.

On my cupcake box, with the little sprinkles cut from colorful wood, I specifically advise against using padauk, since the sprinkles are embedded into fresh lacquer and would just turn everything orange.

But it's a gorgeous wood, and actually not too expensive, so unless there are allergies or some other compelling reason to avoid it, it really is a great choice for many projects.