Once I had the Marblewood blank mounted on the lathe, its hardness became readily apparent. The wood cut slowly and with effort, but it was also very stable and very thin cuts and thin walls were possible. Because of the density of the wood, and because of the depth of the piece I was working with, about 3 inches, I cut a larger than usual divot for mounting the SuperNova 50mm chuck that I would use once the piece was taken off the face-plate and reversed to allow for cutting out the heart of the bowl.
Once I started the hollowing process, it was relatively slow going because of the hardness. The dulling effect on the carbide cutters, fortunately replaceable, of my Easy Wood Tools rougher and finisher, was extremely pronounced. I had to rotate the cutter on the finisher once during the hollowing operation and then I had to actually replace the cutter completely on both the full-size and the miniature finishers in order to continue to make any cuts at all. I have never worked with woods that had such a rapid and devastating effect on cutter heads, and I have worked with woods even harder than Marblewood, but which do not appear to have as pronounced a dulling effect. I would strongly advise potential users of Marblewood to have either sharpening equipment and experience, or to have replaceable cutter heads on hand prior to attempting to work with this wood.
I noted a distinct odor when cutting the Marblewood and I didn’t personally find it to be pleasant. It was relatively subtle but still noted.
Once cut, the wood sanded quite easily but required little sanding because quite clean cuts were possible due to the hardness of the wood. There were small areas of the end-grain that required more work than some other areas, but even this was not over burdensome. The wood rapidly took on a very nice smooth texture even with relatively low grit sandpaper. Higher grits seemed to have mainly served the purpose of polishing the very hard wood.
While I had been using straight shellac to finish bowls, other than rosewood ones, I decided to continue to experiment with the cream version of Shellawax. Shellawas is an Australian product I have used extensively before on smaller items, and I was enormously pleased with the lustrous result. The product couldn’t be simpler and easier to use. I simply dipped a clean lint-free rag into the cream and rubbed it all over the bowl, with the lathe off. Then with the lathe turned back on, I used the wet area of the rag to apply pressure while moving back and forth over the treated areas. The frictional heat created a very nicely glossy finish in seconds. The Shellawax, as the name implies, is a combination of shellac and natural waxes. I am beyond pleased with the results of this finishing product on Marblewood. The manufacturer claims that their “gimmick” is that their product works, and I couldn’t agree more!
While working with Marblewood presented some challenges due to the density and hardness, overall I was quite pleased with the outcomes. The finished bowl has a very nice appearance and heft. The dark streaks, which I think are quite purple, provide wonderful contrast against the otherwise yellow wood. I don’t believe that I have any more bowl blank pieces of Marblewood in my stocks but I may have to change that based on this recent experience, my first working with bowl blank sizes of Marblewood, although I have made pens from the material in the past. I rate Marblewood as a winner in my book!