Bloodwood ??? & Help

[oldvaxguy2]

I have several pieces of Bloodwood that i'm going to cut into puzzles. The first puzzle (the puzzle will be posted after the wife puts it together) seemed to really use a lot of blades. Any suggestions for cutting 5/16" thick bloodwood?

[f250]

Bloodwood is some beautiful stuff, but it is very hard to cut and it loves to smoke and burn. I love it, but have decided to use it sparingly.

Tom

[workin for wood]

My opinion is that you are wasting lumber. i wouldn't cut puzzles in bloodwood for many reasons. First off, you hardly see the wood if there is a picture glued on top, so why waste a nice wood on that? The wood is too hard and thus takes too long to cut. With hardness comes brittleness, and so you risk having puzzle fingers that break off..maybe not right now, but in time some might. Then there's the burning..you can't sand the edges much in a puzzle or you have loose joints and burn marks are not attractive. My suggestion is to use the bloodwood on a more suitable project like intarsia, or some nice fretted shelves. Besides all that, 5/16 thick is pretty darn thick for a puzzle. I would use 1/8" thick poplar, or Baltic birch plywood.

[Rolf]

I am with Jeff on this one. Bloodwood is too precious to use for puzzles.
I did an intarsia Cardinal with it and it was about an inch thick. The resins load up the blade very quickly. I used alot of blades and cut very slowly.

[oldvaxguy2]

Just an FYI. The puzzles made with Bloodwood do NOT have a picture glued to them. The puzzle is usually round without any picture then puzzle pieces are cut out. Usually 5/16 Cherry or Walnut is used for these. Puzzles that have a picture on them either use Baltic Birch plywood or are mode of Cromalux.

[Rolf]

I kind of suspected that Old guy, but thanks for making me feel better. How about posting some pictures of your work. Please!
What is Cromalux?

[kofte]

If you've got *plenty* of time, you might let the blank sit around before you cut it. I had the same issue with a newly resawn piece of bloodwood, so gave up and let it sit in a corner. After a year I needed a piece for another project and grabbed that blank that was sitting around--it cut much easier with little loading on the blade. The waxes/oils had hardened enough. My piece was 1/4" thick Don't know how long you would have to wait though....

With the color and grain, I'd expect it would be a beautiful work--I love how it looks, and how it doesn't turn brown. It does like to warp though, so watch out for that.

[oldvaxguy2]

On my finished walnut and cherry puzzles a Lemon Oil and Beeswax polish is rubbed in by hand before they are given away. How would bloodwood absorb this type of finish?

[Rolf]

All I have ever used on it are gell varnish(Bartleys) and I have also used tung oil.

I have never tried your mix. I would do it on a test piece and wait a few weeks to see if it affects the color.

[kofte]

I would NOT use BLO on the bloodwood. I tried, and it never really cured right--the wood itself is too oily. Not sure if that applies to the lemon oil or not.