I have covered the basics of Redheart previously so I won’t repeat that information here.
I am THRILLED with Redheart! It is now easily one of my all time favorite woods to work with. These bowls cut very clean such that very minimal sanding was required. The color, which I know will darken with time and age, is vibrant and swirling, in fact, it reminds me of the clouds of Jupiter or Saturn. I can’t get over how easily Redheart cuts with almost no tearing, not even on the end grain sections. Redheart takes a nice finish although it does dull the otherwise watermelon red of the freshly cut wood, but still, the color is pretty impressive.
Set of Redheart Bowls
Sadly, I had a 3″ thick piece that was just beautiful. I cut it round last night and mounted it on the lathe so it would be ready for me to turn today, but when I went to the shop I discovered that overnight the blank had checked rather badly. I tried to turn it anyhow because the coloration of the wood was outstanding and I was lucky enough to have brown sapwood for contrast, which to my way of thinking is a real bonus although some wood turners would reject a blank with sapwood. Unfortunately, the more I turned it down the more checks blossomed, actually, I could even hear one of them crack. Ultimately, a piece came out of the top edge and while I could have cut that down, the extensive checking remained and I was doubtful that the bowl would hold together. Sometimes, the better part of wisdom is knowing when to let go but I did so with sadness. Redheart, thankfully is easy to find and it isn’t super expensive, so I am tempted to order a “replacement” blank but I would have to green turn it or wait for years for it to dry in solid form (note that I held this piece of Redheart for over 5 years and still it wasn’t dry) plus I have hundreds, OK probably closer to a thousand, blanks yet to turn so I really shouldn’t be buying new ones. Time will tell!
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 Abranet 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!