I'm making a desktop for personal use. It's 3/4" maple base, and after scraping two or three ideas, i went forward with cutting 4" wide strips of walnet veneer a little thicker than 1/8" to go around the perimeter. In the center-partially finished,-are strips of Bubinga veneer.
The grain to my eyes is stunning, it isn't waterfall, but it's very straight and exotic looking, probably the prettiest wood i've ever bought. Of course, of the 8 foot board, less than half had this pattern, and so from the beginning I already had limited material to work with. Then, I didn't realize how warped it was for the length of the good part, and barely got enough for about 75% of the surface area I need after the most frustrating resaw operation I've attempted thus far. I'm happy with what I got, considering. It's uneven, and of course, even carefully pushing it through my planer with nearly new knives, it chopped up part of one piece. tear out wasn't too bad, but i opted not to risk it.
I carefully cut what I had on my sled and can't complain (the desk is a corner desk and two 45 angles and so doing a lot of triangle cuts, and no room for error since i have no extra pieces, and miraculously, the fit of the Bubinga pieces thus far is nearly perfect). I've still got some left to do, but needed a sneak preview of what I'm in for with planing. I knew from the beginning this wouldn't be fun, but boy, it's worse than I thought.
I have a new Stanley SW 62 I used to flatten the maple base, and I think it did an awesome job and completed the whole thing in a couple short sessions. It's tearing out nicking the Bubinga pretty good though, and so I'm stopping to assess how best to move forward. Fortuitously, the Bubinga veneers are pretty thick thanks to the resaw nightmare, and so there is some room for error, but I've removed enough material that about now is a good time to get a handle on the errors.
In an impulse decision, I've just purchased a Lie Nielson 1-85 scraper plane. I've never used a card scraper, and figured that was the best way to stack the deck in my favor, but it's going to take a few days to arrive, so I'm open to suggestions if there is another angle of attack or better way to do this. If it comes down to sanding 10 minutes a day with 200 grit sand paper for the next year then that's what it will be.
The grain to my eyes is stunning, it isn't waterfall, but it's very straight and exotic looking, probably the prettiest wood i've ever bought. Of course, of the 8 foot board, less than half had this pattern, and so from the beginning I already had limited material to work with. Then, I didn't realize how warped it was for the length of the good part, and barely got enough for about 75% of the surface area I need after the most frustrating resaw operation I've attempted thus far. I'm happy with what I got, considering. It's uneven, and of course, even carefully pushing it through my planer with nearly new knives, it chopped up part of one piece. tear out wasn't too bad, but i opted not to risk it.
I carefully cut what I had on my sled and can't complain (the desk is a corner desk and two 45 angles and so doing a lot of triangle cuts, and no room for error since i have no extra pieces, and miraculously, the fit of the Bubinga pieces thus far is nearly perfect). I've still got some left to do, but needed a sneak preview of what I'm in for with planing. I knew from the beginning this wouldn't be fun, but boy, it's worse than I thought.
I have a new Stanley SW 62 I used to flatten the maple base, and I think it did an awesome job and completed the whole thing in a couple short sessions. It's tearing out nicking the Bubinga pretty good though, and so I'm stopping to assess how best to move forward. Fortuitously, the Bubinga veneers are pretty thick thanks to the resaw nightmare, and so there is some room for error, but I've removed enough material that about now is a good time to get a handle on the errors.
In an impulse decision, I've just purchased a Lie Nielson 1-85 scraper plane. I've never used a card scraper, and figured that was the best way to stack the deck in my favor, but it's going to take a few days to arrive, so I'm open to suggestions if there is another angle of attack or better way to do this. If it comes down to sanding 10 minutes a day with 200 grit sand paper for the next year then that's what it will be.