Don't over tighten

Here is a little advice for those of you who will one day use padauk wood. Keep this in the back of your head, you might need it one day.

Padauk is an oily wood. It works nice and smells great, but it wont do a couple things you may want it to do.

1, it won’t bend even if you steam a 1/4 inch thick piece for an hour, it will only bend slightly before it splinters.
2, It will take a screw but always use the right pilot and don’t tighten it up becuase the wood will break off at each thread of the screw leaving it loose but impossible to extract without messing up your work.
3, Never use oil on padauk. It ruins it. Sand it to 180 and seal it with your choice of sealers. Satin works best and makes the wood irridescent.

This is experiential knowledge.

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.