I routinely sand all my bowls to 800 grit and on a very hard specimen such as Dalmata it really shows. Once the piece was finish sanded it shone as though I had applied a high gloss lacquer finish to the piece even though there was nothing at all on the wood other than just the wood sheen itself. It was a lovely sight.
I think it was due to the checking that the sidewall cuts were far less stable than the cuts to the base. Because of this instability I left the sidewalls a bit thicker than I often do, but the sidewalls are still below ½ inch all around, which isn’t too bad at all I think.
I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed working with Dalmata unfortunately. The cross-grain tear-out was pretty extensive no matter what I tried and sanding it out was frankly tedious at some point. There are other equally attractive and dark-streaked woods out there that I have had far easier times working with that I think I would prefer over Dalmata in the future. And, I am troubled by the origins of the wood in the free-for-all environment of the Peruvian Amazon at this time as well and would be a bit more comfortable if the true conservation status of the species were known.
However, as a reaction to discovering the checking, albeit before actually turning the Dalmata blank to know whether I would like working with it or not, I replaced the blank from West Penn Hardwoods, so now I have another piece of Dalmata to work with in the future whether I like it or not.
But, given the extremely extended drying times required to air-dry Dalmata, by the time it is comfortably dry enough to turn I may no longer remember that I didn’t enjoy it or perhaps my skills will have improved to the point of those most self-vaunted of all wood-turners who claim that they “never have to sand” any bowl they turn, and if so, then my regrets and reservations over working with Dalmata should be resolved.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever their wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today.