Blue Green Palm Root Sierra- From the George (robutacion)stable

[tgsean]

Hi Folks,

I find it hard to differentiate blue from green sometimes and vice versa. Hence the title. Nevertheless this a fantastic blank from the George stable. I must say that the photograph does not do it justice. I have found this is the hardest material to photograph well. I don't get time in the daytime to do the photos as I come back from the shed often at 10pm, and then do the pictures using a light box and diffuse lights (Chinese set from ebay for 40 dollars). It seems to work well for everything, but not so for palm root. The depth you see in the blank doesn't really come out in the picture. They are amazing to look at, and you can spend a lot of time looking at them. For the scientific minded, they actually look like numerous cells! In fact some areas look like cell division and multiplication! I am fascinated by the palm root, more than any of the other material.

Is it hard to turn? Oh boy it is the hardest material to turn using normal HSS. In fact you will find it will change the shape of your tool!! It is due to the naturally occurring sand in the blank which is impossible to separate I am told (by George). When I encountered this problem much earlier, I asked the blank maker ( George of course) who as we all know provides fantastic support for everyone with their questions etc. He suggested either Carbide tools or flap disc. I bought the pro easy tools, and a flap disc and I use both! George, you have changed my attitude towards turning. I am lousy at sharpening tools, but the Carbide doesn't need to be sharpened, if it goes blunt change the side of the blade:biggrin:. Awesome!And you can just throw and replace flap discs as well!

I finished this with CA, 20 coats as usual with accelerator in between coats. After the first 10 coats I sand back with 800 grit, then continue with another 10 coats. Then wet sand till 12,000 grit. Then buff with white diamond rouge, and then last procedure is renaissance wax. I do this procedure for all my pens, except M3.

C & C welcome as always. I've just ordered more sky and true blue palm root from George!!

Cheers,
Sean

 

[Cwalker935]

Great pen, that is a really intersting blank.

 

[robutacion]

Hi Folks,

I find it hard to differentiate blue from green sometimes and vice versa. Hence the title. Nevertheless this a fantastic blank from the George stable. I must say that the photograph does not do it justice. I have found this is the hardest material to photograph well. I don't get time in the daytime to do the photos as I come back from the shed often at 10pm, and then do the pictures using a light box and diffuse lights (Chinese set from ebay for 40 dollars). It seems to work well for everything, but not so for palm root. The depth you see in the blank doesn't really come out in the picture. They are amazing to look at, and you can spend a lot of time looking at them. For the scientific minded, they actually look like numerous cells! In fact some areas look like cell division and multiplication! I am fascinated by the palm root, more than any of the other material.

Is it hard to turn? Oh boy it is the hardest material to turn using normal HSS. In fact you will find it will change the shape of your tool!! It is due to the naturally occurring sand in the blank which is impossible to separate I am told (by George). When I encountered this problem much earlier, I asked the blank maker ( George of course) who as we all know provides fantastic support for everyone with their questions etc. He suggested either Carbide tools or flap disc. I bought the pro easy tools, and a flap disc and I use both! George, you have changed my attitude towards turning. I am lousy at sharpening tools, but the Carbide doesn't need to be sharpened, if it goes blunt change the side of the blade:biggrin:. Awesome!And you can just throw and replace flap discs as well!

I finished this with CA, 20 coats as usual with accelerator in between coats. After the first 10 coats I sand back with 800 grit, then continue with another 10 coats. Then wet sand till 12,000 grit. Then buff with white diamond rouge, and then last procedure is renaissance wax. I do this procedure for all my pens, except M3.

C & C welcome as always. I've just ordered more sky and true blue palm root from George!!

Cheers,
Sean

Hi Sean,

Another great pen, that one is stabilized blue and cast with True-Blue Pearlex, and you are most correct about what destroys the cutting tools, with this Palm root material, I should know, I had to dig it out, chainsaw it, bandsaw it while raw, stabilize it small blocks and then slice it again to pen blank size, sand it, etc, etc, even sanding I have to use the blue diamond paper 40 grit (expensive stuff).

There is an amount of soil for 90% of the root material, the palm root strains grow into the soil therefore, it will trap soil as it tangles itself into this mesh type so, whatever the type of soil the tree grown on, that's the soil that will be found inside and not possible to remove.

I have discussed and shown this, long ago in this thread

I also know exactly what you mean about the beauty and intricacy of this material, particularly when some dyes and coloured resin are added to it, the contrasts are out of this world, as I manage to capture in some of the pics on this thread

Another interesting pic,

Cheers
George

 

[bobjackson]

George has some amazing blanks. Nice job, beautiful pen.

 

[tgsean]

Thanks everyone, George that box is amazing! Great photo too. Well done

 

[Joe S.]

Thanks a lot. Now I need to spend more money! That's really cool.

 

[Tom T]

Very cool pen for sure. Great job, fit and finish. Wow. Thanks for sharing and the explanation of how it was done.