Stabilized Pine Cones and other pen blanks

[Doug B]

I got the stabilized Pine Cone blanks back from Woodturningz. I also sent a bunch of different pen blanks of stuff I have some problems with that I wanted to see if stabilizing would make them easier to use.

I am in the process of testing out all the stabilized stuff and will post pics of all the finished pens and stoppers as I go through this stuff. First, here is a pic of the stabilized stuff as it came back from Woodturningz. The weight I sent was just under 1 pound, and the weight of the stabilized stuff was 1.8 pounds, so it cost me $18.00 plus shipping (about $5.00 each way). I think that is reasonable for what I got. Here is the pic:




The cones opened up pretty badly from the processing as shown here:




The first thing I wanted to try was a Pine Cone and a single barrel pen would be the quickest thing to do, so here is a Cartridge pen made from one of the stabilized Pine Cone pen blanks.




It turned much easier than usual and I only needed to stabilize it myself using thin CA twice. So, the pen blank was a success. I still had to stabilize it down toward the final dimension, but I would have had to do that many more times than that if I had been doing an unstabilized cone.

It also seemed to darken the cone somewhat, but not unattractively. I will be sending more Pine Cone pen blanks off for stabilizing since I think that would be worthwhile.


Next I chose to do the 2 small Sagebrush pieces. They were highly figured and very small. I was hoping the stabilizing would make them easier to turn. Here are 3 pics:



I put the clip on the least figured part, so the picture is not normal orientation for the clip.

Here is the back side of the pen:



And, just because I really love this pen, here is a third pic of it:




The Sagebrush was helped significantly by the stabilization so I will be sending more of these to be stabilized too. With the Sage, I rarely get any that is this figured, but those are the ones I want to send out for stabilizing. Now I just need to go through about a hundred pounds of Sage I have and see how much of this nice stuff I can find - there is not going to be a whole lot and you really can't tell about it until you get into it a little bit. I'm also anxious to see how the bigger blanks did.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get some more of the stabilized stuff turned to see how it is going to work. I filled some of the bottle stopper blanks with black dyed epoxy to see if I could salvage them...we will see...

[sachbvn]

Awesome Doug!! I'm excited that this stuff seems to be working out ok....it's cool that they do this, and at a reasonable cost.

Looking forward to more updates!
Zac

[Doug B]

Yeah, I'm anxious to see how all this stuff turns out...literally ;D

That spalted Sycamore is the one you sent me Zac and it feels like it really soaked up the stabilizing material well...I think it will turn really well now...I knew it was going to need lots of CA when I turned it, so it was a great one to send for stabilizing to see how well it works. I'll get to it eventually so you can see if you want to send some of yours out for stabilizing

[sdb777]

Question(s)....

#1: Was the cartridge pen due with a 'whole cone' or the one you 'prepped'?

#2: Crosscut cedar, did you send it off in two pieces or did it crack during at some point while out of your sight?

Gonna be watching for that red palm to see how it turns out for you! I hate palm....but if this helps, I'll be asking for a contact number to sent up a shipment.

Turn around time was pretty short! Very cool!!!




Oh yeah! The pens came out great too!

Scott (cone looks like a glazed donut) B

[maverick31]

well done doug, Those cones did open up a bit, hopefully when you fill them with epoxy it will save it. Those sagebrush blanks are awesome, great job on those. I am glad this process was so easy and fairly cheap. I have a huge hackberry tree in my back yard that I was thinking about chainsawing a few limbs off to let em spalt up this spring. I may have to do that and then send em off for stabilizing. Thanks for keeping us up to date.

[Doug B]

I really should have taken a picture of the stuff before I sent it out...I didn't think about doing that until it was too late

Scott, the Cartridge was made with what I am calling the 3 "pen blank" cones that got stabilized. I cut the skin off of all 6 cones I sent, but 3 of them I squared up like a pen blank and 3 were kept more to their original shape with the intent to use them as bottle stoppers. In both cases, that is what I normally do with the cones anyway - I just use CA right away on them and they don't open up on me. All 6 of these opened up, probably because of the processing which I believe uses heat and pressure. I am going to call them tomorrow and talk to them about it to see if there might be some way to make it work better.

I wrapped the "skinned" cones in plastic wrap to try and keep them from opening up, and that is one thing I need to find out - were the cones already opened up before they got stabilized or did the processing cause it. And I may send some cones next time without skinning them...I know they stay intact if shipped that way and maybe they will work - I wish I could get Woodturningz to "skin" them for me before stabilizing them, but I don't think I'll even ask them to do that...it would be too hard to work out the details and they prolly don't have the time or inclination to do something like that.

The crosscut Cedar was a single solid blank when I sent it - the stabilizing seems to have made it weaker across the grain, which was also evident when I drilled the blank - the layers seem easy to "flake off". It will be interesting to see how they turn - one side I had to add an extra piece of wood to get it long enough to hold a slimline tube. That is my next piece to turn and I will report back on how it does. It may be that cross cut is not a good candidate for stabilizing - it did seem to soak up the stabilizing material pretty well - it is much heavier than before.

The Red Palm, unfortunately did not seem to soak up a lot of the stabilizing material - it was not very heavy like the other stuff, and when I cut it there was no sign that it penetrated at all. That kinda goes along with what I had experienced with it before - the CA does not seem to soak in very deep. But, I might be surprised...keeping an open mind about it. I think I might send a cross cut piece of Red Palm with the next batch to see if that does any better.

I'll keep you guys posted on the rest of the stuff.

[Joe Lyddon]

This is the first time I've seen you work with a cone that has opened up...
... I thought that was a NO NO...
Glad to see you can make it work.

[mcbryde]

Does the stabilization seem to fill voids, or does it just seem to soak up into the wood? The sagebrush blanks look to have some open spots in them is why I am asking. I guess I thouhgt that the stabilization process closed all those voids. Am I getting this mixed up with mixing a colored resin with wood?

E

[Doug B]

Joe, I usually do not use opened up cones and the cones I sent out for stabilization were not opened up. The stabilization processing made them all open up. I used the one that stayed most intact and it had enough that had not opened up for me to make a single barrel pen from it. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm going to be able to use the other ones.

So, you remembered correctly

Emerson, the stabilizing does not fill voids - it works just like wood hardener does, only much better and much quicker. The full sized Sagebrush blanks do have voids in them that I will have to fill with thick CA if they extend into the turned pen barrels. They usually do when they look like that.

Now, to fill the voids, resin casting can be done - I have seen that done with both Alumilite and Polyester Resin, but those are very different things than stabilizing. I really wanted stabilizing for these things, not necessarily void filling. Your wormy wood might be a good candidate for stabilizing which would just stiffen up the existing material. If the worm holes were empty, the casting would be better to do with them. Hope that helps.

[sdb777]

Doesn't the stabilizing process use a bunch of heat and pressure?
Maybe that's why the cones opened....

I'm thinking your cones looked a LOT better before, the lighter tone of the cone gave a better look into it, with more detail being seen. Then again, maybe this cone above(on the cartridge pen) was just darker by nature?

Now the Sage stuff you got on the other pen has definitely gained something. The grain seems to be 'popping out'!


How did the finishing process of CA go?
Was fewer coats needed or same-old-same-old?




Scott (can tell I haven't turned anything stabilized) B

[Doug B]

Scott, yes the cones all seem to have been darkened in color by the process. I don't know yet if they are all this dark or if it was just this one...some cones are naturally darker than others.

And I suspect the heat is the real culprit...in fact, I remember hearing somewhere that there are some type of Pines who's cones don't open up until a forest fire heats them up enough to let their seeds out. So, it may have a functional reason as well.

The Sagebrush did not seem to darken nearly as much as the cones and I'm really liking the stabilization of it so far. Definitely will be getting some more of that stabilized.

The CA finishing is pretty much the same, but as you suspected, it does not take nearly as much - but a couple of coat were still needed. The biggest advantage is not having to stabilize with CA while turning.

I had to Lacquer dip the crosscut Cedar so it is done, but not put together yet. It also darkened quite a bit, but hopefully I'll have pics soon.

[boodrow]

Doug thats a real kick in the nads. The pen is quite a beauty though. Let us know how the other cones turn out ,
Boodrow