A couple more stoppers

[Doug B]

I've been wanting to try this Red Palm wood I have on a bottle stopper. Man this stuff is a PITA to turn! But it sure is unusual. ;D



And another view of it.



Also got this Colorgrain one finally finished. I turned it months ago and was not sure I liked the shape, but I decided to go ahead and finish it.


Both of these are finished using the Lacquer dipping method that I am really becoming a big fan of especially for stoppers.

[sdb777]

Congrats on getting that palm turned! Are you using the CA to hold it together while turning? It came out great!

The colorgrain looks amazing! I like the idea of having all the deep grooves....seems it would give the individual something more to grab on to while pulling.



Scott (2nd cup of coffee....hope I made sense) B

[boodrow]

Very nice Doug. I think u mite be surprised how good the palm will sell. Its prob my best seller. But as u said a solid PITA to turn.
Boodrow

[deepsplinter]

I like 'em.

Interesting grain in the Red Palm (I've never heard of it). Those deep grooves (is that what ya call 'em?) would be a good place for some burn rings. Can ya tell I'm a fan of burn rings/marks.

That Colorgrain thing looks pretty cool, too. Is it too much to ask to turn it 90° and give us "side view"?

You'll have to excuse some of my wording, I don't speak "lathe".


Dave (need to stay in the flatwork forum) A.

[maverick31]

both look great doug, I agree with boodrow. I had more people asking about black palm and cocobolo than anything. They cant believe that is from a palm tree

[Doug B]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Scott - Yes, I used CA to stabilize the blank from both ends. This stuff is like a bunch of straws and when I applied thin CA from one end there was actually some that came out the other end. So I applied CA to that end as well hoping it would help stabilize the blank. But I don't think it helped all that much - any slight mis-step with the skew and the tear out was bad...and forget about using the roughing gouge! I used the gouge to get it round, then it was only the skew to do the rest.

The deep grooves in the Colorgrain wood are needed to help show off the patterns better. My Colorgrain pen blanks that I bought were bias cut but the stopper blank was not and so it does not have quite the same effect, but cutting deep into the blank helps somewhat.

Boodrow - it was your previous comments about the Palm stoppers that made me determined to make some. I used it for pen making and never got 2 whole pen barrels completed, even on the straight grain and forget the cross grain! I think I got the method figured out on how to turn Palm now and what contours will work. Hopefully the next one will be better - I'm not crazy about that shape.

Dave, every time I turn a bead now I think about whether or not to put a burn line in the grooves. I'm worried that I might be over-doing the burn lines because I like them so much, but maybe I'm worrying too much about it. Thanks for your input, that helps me determine what is going to work well.

And here is a picture of the Colorgrain rotated 90*