Gluing Katalox

Re: Gluing Katalox

TomD

Depends on the effects you want, but boatbuilding epoxy is a great glue if there is going to be a load. Such a rocker rockers. Maloof made some in ebony and used epoxy. Boat epoxy like WEST, RAKA System 3 basic, is all strong stuff, readily available and designed to glue wood. West would be the best, but for furniture, one is not trying to integrate, say carbon fiber into the load path, so it hardly maters. You can add carbon black (graphite powder) to the glue, just enough to make it black, and that will give a contrasting glue line. Epoxy is hard to totally squeeze out, and it may not be structurally desireabale, so a contrast often looks better. While you can't can't glue garbage together, even with great glue, epoxy does seem to work well with some of the resins found in rosewood. And waterproof

Luthiers also deal with relentless string tension @ 200lbs on a lever. They use original Tightbond, and LMII's luthiers glue is good. So is hot hide glue. The thing is to frustrate creep in the joint that even at .1X continuous tension can cause failures in the glue line. (as might occur in even laminations). Tightbond is proven relative to call backs and returns. Decades of performance on expensive instruments in sometimes, or is it mostly, careless hands. As are the other two. And you can get invisible gluelines.

Hot hide glue is great and can be unbeatable in situations where you need rubbed joints, or veneers, reversability, or easy repairs, etc...

Back in the day when there was tons of good Brazilian, there were a number of interesting formulas for degreasing rosewoods, improving glueing. In my case, the stuff I use in guitars is easy to work with and required no special processes, but there is information on that kind of thing.

This will be interesting

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

You have a good design eye so I am sure you see an attractive table top there somewhere that I am not seeing. Anxious to see what you do with what I only see as unrelated boards.

polish level...

David Weaver

..I've turned a few handles from katalox. It's the most dense wood that I've turned next to verawood or lignum, and banging two boards or sticks together makes such a high pitched loud sound that your ears can ring.

I'll be interested in seeing how it comes through with gluing as it's also one of the most closed surface polished woods I can think of (my billets haven't been particularly oily, though).

I would imagine that it would dye well because of how evenly dense it is.

It's brother, gombeira, looks like dark butter but goes to super dark brown, almost identical working properties and sound and density. It would make a nice table, but if one is to ever get mad and slam their knuckles into a table top, this wouldn't be first choice (nor would katalox).

Re: Only obeying orders

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

That is a difficult collection to work with. I would have joined the entirely sap side of the bottom board with an entirely sap side of one of the others. And then my head would have exploded dealing with the next joint to make.

Board #1 sliced into veneer would make a dandy top.

Nice walnut desk.

Re: Only obeying orders

Larry Edinger

To Each Their Own!

Re: Only obeying orders

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I have a daughter who is a double art chem major. She took art classes to learn to be artistic. In this case she was receptive to having someone more experienced than herself teach her about color, design, composition, etc.

During the energy "crisis" in the 70's coal mines in SW VA were minting money and a lot of new rich were being created. A woman hired one of our cabinet shop customers to make walnut kitchen cabinets and then paint them white, because she could. She obviously was not receptive to refining her taste. I don't know if 10 years later if she regretted this decision.

In between might be someone set on some design that was flawed. Swayed to a better design they might be appreciative years later that someone kept them from making a design mistake, .....or not depending on the growth of their artistic experience.

To each their own could be an opportunity to learn, or a stubbornness to accept.

Re: Only obeying orders

David Yoho

In agreement, I would probably move the bottom board to the top like it is. Makes more sense to my eye. I would have at least asked her to entertain the idea over night.

Re: This will be interesting

Clint Searl

I wonder if we aren't seeing the "pot and kettle" phenomenon at work here. Nyuk nyuk

Re: This will be interesting

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Pot and Kettle? Must be some saying old people use

Re: Gluing Katalox

kneale brownson

I get that she wanted two white edges. I think I'd have used the third board flipped end for end in place of the bottom board.

Re: Only obeying orders

Jerry Gibbs

In the 1950s, a heir to the Gamble fortune wanted to sell the Gamble house in Pasadena. The buyer wanted to paint the teak white. Fortunately for all of us the sale was refused.