Don't Know Exactly What It Is!!

[Bree]

I ordered some Olive wood from a member and the piece was a little short of spec so he threw in a few assorted blanks to make up the difference. One of them was a 5/8" blank almost black with crystallized resin of some kind all over the blank. It was impossible to tell just what the heck it was.

Naturally, I went right for it and turned a slimline with that mystery blank last night. Here it is... you guys figure out what the heck it is. It is some kind of spalted wood. Doesn't look like maple to me.

I finished it with Sealacel Tung Oil Stain and Sealer (Honey Oak), CA, and Ren Wax. First time with CA as a finish... not as easy as the videos show!! LOL!
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[GouletPens]

Your CA finish looks pretty good from the pictures you took. The crystalized resin on the outside was probably stabilizing medium. Some of the commercially stabilized blanks I buy from AS have a similar feature. If I had to guess on the wood though...hmmm....I don't know.

 

[exoticwo]

I agree with Brian, the blank sounds like it was stablized.

Hard to tell but the wood might be Maple, maybe even a little Spalting in the blank.

 

[rjwolfe3]

I'm betting it was stabilized. It is possible some kind of citrus or maybe Koa (but I don't know if Koa spalts). I think the stabilizer darkened up the wood. It is definitely spalted and I see some curl in there as well. Is it possible to ask the person who gave it to you or was it an unknown?

 

[mrcook4570]

The stabilizing resin hardens the soft and punky areas so that it can be worked easily. It looks like mango.

 

[GoodTurns]

nice looking pen, my first thought was a stabilized spalted maple...just a guess!

 

[mickr]

my guess stabilized heavily spalted maple

 

[clthayer]

how about spalted mango???

 

[Bree]

It's definitely spalted. But there is some kind of wild swirly grain in it that is very uncharacteristic of maple. The natural color of the wood is light but maybe not as light as normal maple. The stabilizing agent definitely darkened the wood. I mean it was almost like PIX I have seen of bog wood at first. But it became clear that this wood had been treated throughout. Nevertheless it was still subject to some tearout despite a very soft touch and light cuts with a very sharp skew.

I have 4 other blanks that came in that shipment other than the olivewood. Three were unmarked ... two burls and one two toned poplar like wood. I will snap some PIX and see if you guys can ID them BEFORE I start turning them. The 4th blank is labeled as Desert Ironwood.
:wink::wink::wink:

 

[Ankrom Exotics]

It appears to be spalted maple burl. I have quite a few undergoing stabilization right now that look very similar.

 

[GouletPens]

I was going to say mango, but the spalted mango I have doesn't quite look like that...generally my spalted mango has thin, straight spalting lines that go down the pen, not in the kind of loops or rings you see here. I dunno.