this excellent and comprehensive resource<\/a>.<\/p>\nFortunately, I experienced no negative side effects when working with Spectraply.<\/p>\n
My Personal Experiences<\/h2>\n Yellow Birch, and therefore Spectraply, is a fairly soft hardwood, so it drilled, turned, and sanded quite easily overall. I have some degree of experience with laminated products so I had no difficulties with splitting or breaking as sometimes happens with new users. Because the wood is soft, it does tend to fuzz a bit when cut but this is very easily remedied with even light sanding. I used a friction polish on the blanks and am quite satisfied with the overall results. I always enjoy the unique patterns created by laminated materials, which in the case of Spectraply resemble chevron patterns of two sides while the other two sides are more traditionally striped.<\/p>\n
I have long enjoyed working with Spectraply and am sorry to see that it has become so difficult to obtain. I have additional stocks on order and look forward to working with this material again in the future.<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
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Spectraply is made by first peeling Yellow Birch from logs into long sheets as is typical for the production of plywood, the fate of most Yellow Birch timber. These thin sheets, or those intended for Spectraply at least, are dyed multiple different, often vibrant, colors. Differing shades, usually complementary color combinations or combinations intended to represent brand names, such as John Deere, or a sporting team, are layered one atop the other, in repeating patterns of as few as two colors up to as many as five, depending on the desired design. In between each different colored sheet epoxy is applied. Under enormous pressure, which also creates heat, the sheets are pressed together and as the epoxy cures a laminate is formed. The edges are trimmed and blanks of varying sizes are then cut from the master block. The results are Spectraply blanks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":1231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,127,128,137,129,138,130],"tags":[168,171,180,183,200,201,210,214,239,240,247,249],"yoast_head":"\n
Spectraply and Yellow Birch - Wood Turning Pens ..<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n