5 new pens - good day in the shop!

[sachbvn]

Hey Guys - great day in the shop. Got 5 pens done. It's really helped time-wise since I extended my mandrel out and turn both pieces at once - ESPECIALLY on the finishing end of things.

First one - Zebrawood - bad picture, kinda makes the finish look blah - but it is smooth.




Second is BOW - not the fanciest piece of BOW I've gotten, but I like it. Nice color - but none of those black lines running through it. BTW - this was probably the oiliest piece of BOW I've ever had, it clogged up several strips of paper. Yuck!




Next is two pictures of a Spalted Hackberry Cigar pen. It was a stabilized piece from Woodtuningz. I made another one of these first but it sold so fast I never got a photo of it. It was MUCH darker, I like this one much better.






Next is a Masur Birch blank on a Cigar kit. This turned really easy and sanded super smooth. Finished well.




Last is a Buffalo Pencil I made out of Bubinga. This thing was fun to turn - not real costly either. I used a long blank I received from Gecko (thanks!) and was able to get two pencils out of it - didn't turn the other one yet.





Comments - critiques.



Thanks!
Zac

[Doug B]

Wow that really is a great day Zac. Five very nice pens.

The Zebrawood is an open grain wood and sometimes collects the sanding dust in the low grain areas. If you use accelerator with a paper towel to clean the blank before the first coat of CA it helps. I do that for all woods but it helps most on woods like that. I like the aerosol accelerator best for doing that and run the lathe at lowest speed with a paper towel under the blank while spraying the accelerator on. Accelerator flashes off real quickly so it is ready for the CA finish application within seconds.

BOW, even without the dark grain in it is nice wood. And turns so nicely too.

That Spalted Hackberry from Woodturningz is fantastic stuff. Very nice Cigar pen.

That Masur Birch Cigar pen is great too - that is really nice looking wood.

Both Cigars look very well made.

The Buffalo pencil is one I have made several of and it is a challenge to turn that long of a barrel with a slight contour like that - it looks like you did a real good job on it. They have been pretty good sellers but I have had trouble finding replacement erasers for that pencil locally. I can order them from PSI, but I hate having to be the supplier for things like that.

Bubinga is one of those woods I have issues with a CA finish on...did you use CA for the finish? Any issues with it?

[sdb777]

Did your Zebrawood have an aroma that smelled like, ummm...... okay it smelled like what a Zebra would have left in the garage steamin'? Mine did....just awful.
Still got four blanks, and I think it'll just sit beside that black palm!
I noticed all the fine dust in the grain...cleaned it out with a quick rub down of Mineral Spirits, rubbing with the grain until the towel was clean.
The Zebrawood has a nice 'line' to it, the curves make it look more appealing.

I have noticed the last four BOW blanks I've received, they have been straight-grained with no blacklines/weird figuring? Guess we ordered at the same time? Bottom of the box stuff. At least mine haven't been oily....

I'm going to have to find some spalted hackleberry! The large diameter of the Cigar really shows off the great figuring inside that stick! Excellent, bet it won't sit for long!!

Never even heard of Masur, not your typical birch...has weird looking eyes.....

The bubinga I normally have laying around looks exactly like that, got luck when I ordered some and received just one(out of 20) that had any figuring to it. It's another wood that needs to have the grain 'cleaned out'. Makes for a cool looking fat pencil though!!


Scott (get it zebra would? leave on the ground behind him) B

[sachbvn]

Apr 9, 2010 2:14:11 GMT -6 Doug B said:

Wow that really is a great day Zac. Five very nice pens.

The Zebrawood is an open grain wood and sometimes collects the sanding dust in the low grain areas. If you use accelerator with a paper towel to clean the blank before the first coat of CA it helps. I do that for all woods but it helps most on woods like that. I like the aerosol accelerator best for doing that and run the lathe at lowest speed with a paper towel under the blank while spraying the accelerator on. Accelerator flashes off real quickly so it is ready for the CA finish application within seconds.

I clean all my blanks with DNA while on the lathe - but apparently its not good enough on the real open grain woods....I know Zebrawood is an open grain - I go at it until the towel comes back clean, I'll have to try the accelerator - I have a pump bottle, I'll have to see if it does a better job that MS or DNA

BOW, even without the dark grain in it is nice wood. And turns so nicely too.

That Spalted Hackberry from Woodturningz is fantastic stuff. Very nice Cigar pen.

That Masur Birch Cigar pen is great too - that is really nice looking wood.

Both Cigars look very well made.

The Buffalo pencil is one I have made several of and it is a challenge to turn that long of a barrel with a slight contour like that - it looks like you did a real good job on it. They have been pretty good sellers but I have had trouble finding replacement erasers for that pencil locally. I can order them from PSI, but I hate having to be the supplier for things like that.

Thanks Doug - yeah I can see how a taper on such a long straight barrel could come out awry, this actually went real well - I offset the taper on purpose, kind of distinguish a top and bottom ya know? It was real fun (and quick) to make, I have one more kit I'll do - see how those go, probably order a few more.

Bubinga is one of those woods I have issues with a CA finish on...did you use CA for the finish? Any issues with it?

Actually - I've had good luck with Bubinga.... there is an issue with the finish but it isn't a filmy type issue... well - I don't think it's the issue you were talking about. I think it had something to do with either one of the coats of CA or in the final sanding with MM, though I think it's on one of the "under" layers of CA. Not bad enough to not sell - but I wouldn't call it flawless. It sanded really well, felt dry.


Scott - I have no idea what the zebrawood smells like when turning it - because I wear a mask - you should too! Nah, seriously - mine doesn't stink at all. I've worked around it maskless - but to be honest, since I started wearing the mask each and everytime I'm at the lathe - I'm glad of it - it's not good to breath the dust of any wood, but I imagine some exotics can reign hell on your lungs. I'll take off the mask sometimes even though I know dust is still in the air - but at least it ain't spinning straight off the lathe and into my face.


Zac

[Ruffnek]

Beautiful pens, Zac, all of them. I'm particularly fond of native woods so that spalted Hackberry really melts my butter.

[boodrow]

Zac great lookin pens , u aint lettin no dust settle around ur shoes are U ? Sounds like no natty lite breaks either. ;D
I like the spalted hack the best , im just partial to the spalting , the finish and shapes look great on all of um
Boodrow

[Doug B]

Zac, sometimes the wood does what it wants to no matter what we try to do to prevent it. If you clean the sanding dust off before putting the CA finish on then there is nothing more you can do.

Bubinga wood gives some "ghosting" or cloudiness for me when using a CA finish. Not always, but sometimes. I just wondered if you saw anything like that with yours.

Zebrawood does smell like Zebra dung when you cut it with the miter saw. Never noticed it smelling while turning or cutting on the Band Saw. I really like to cut Zebrawood at an angle - about 30 to 45 degrees to the grain, but that also makes it more difficult to turn.

[sachbvn]

Yeah - I got some cross cut Bocote to try out - boy was I surprised when that blank blew all to hell!! MUCH more difficult to turn, but it was looking MIGHTY fine! I could still probably get the job done using only a gouge, keep it sharp and baby it - but a skew would be much better. Would a scraper work? After all - it IS end grain you are cutting.


Zac

[deepsplinter]

I really like that "curvy, girly" shape on the first one.

You're spending a lot of time down there spinnin' stuff, Zac. You've mentioned your girlfriend a few times in the past. You're not neglecting her, are you? Or were you thinking about her when you made that first pen?

If it's none of my business, just tell me so.

[sachbvn]

Nah Dave - we're both busy - no neglecting going on here! Besides, she's my biggest fan!


Zac

[Doug B]

Apr 10, 2010 2:41:55 GMT -6 sachbvn said:

Would a scraper work? After all - it IS end grain you are cutting.
Zac

I don't know about that Zac. I have been surprised at what a scraper works well on at times. I use my skew as a scraper quite often. It works real well that way on antler and acrylic. But only for taking small amount off for smoothing and such, not to take off a lot of material. I saw a video once of a guy who used only a heavy scraper to turn a polyester resin pen once - and he is a real knowledgeable and experienced pen turner. So it is possible that a scraper might work on cross cut blanks, but it seems to me that it would cause terrible chip out.

There are lots of things you can do with a skew, so I'd still encourage you to master it's use. I looked real hard for that video I saw that made such a difference for me, but I just cannot find it. I think the place (another wood turning forum) must not still be around, but I don't remember the forum name, so it may just be hard to google it.

[Mark]

But only for taking small amount off for smoothing and such, not to take off a lot of material.

I wonder if a "Shear-Scraping" approach would be the best for that situation? I've found that I can get a really smooth finish on bowls, inside and out, all the way around, which are essentially alternating between end grain and edge grain twice per rev.

To do shear scraping though, you need to be able to position the cutting edge so that it tilts up 45 deg relative to the axis of rotation, and towards the direction of travel. There are a number of tool holders that provide that ability. And, like Doug said, you take really light cuts, so the shavings coming off are more like goose down than flight feathers.

Mark