This is my second time turning Dalmata. I am reasonably certain that this is the blank I bought to replace the previous one that I cut too early.
Frankly, I didn’t enjoy working with Dalmata any more the second time that I did the first time. IF I were smarter than I am, I would get ONE sample of a given type of wood, turn it, and then decide if I want more of it based on experience. Alas, no one said that I am smart all the time and this would be one of those less than smart times.
Dalmata Interior
My problem with Dalmata is that it cuts rough on the end grain sections and being a hard wood, it is very time consuming, tedious, and resource expensive to sand that out to a smooth surface. I am hyper-focused on the feel of the finished piece because over time I have noticed that one of the first things people do upon picking up a bowl is to run their hands over it and I want them to feel nothing but a glassy smoothness. With Dalmata, that is hard to achieve although possible as this piece proves.
The coloration on this piece of Dalmata is misleading in that only half of the piece features any significant streaking with the other half being quite plain brown wood. I find myself wondering if the plain portion is actually sapwood.
I do think the finished piece is attractive but I am not convinced that the reward is worth the effort. There are so many woods that turn nicely and cut cleanly that I am hard pressed to justify spending significant amounts of time on problematic woods, but the most certain way to know what you like to work with and what you don’t is to try a piece of a given wood and find out. I hope that there are readers out there who love working with Dalmata!
Dalmata Reverse
If you are interested, despite it all, in trying Dalmata I wish you good luck finding it. There is so little written about Dalmata that the number one search result for “dalmata turning blank” is this website! And, two of the Google photo pictures are also mine. If I am ranking that highly you can be there is little competition. I sourced both of my pieces of Dalmata from West Penn Hardwoods but they don’t offer it any longer. All I can find are some spindle blanks; no one seems to be offering Dalmata bowl blanks.
All cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool system on my Robust American Beauty lathe. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks. Final finish is Shellawax.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever your wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!