ebonite

[aggromere]

Im in the process of making my first pen from ebonite. It's black ebonite but all the shavings from it while turning are brown. It also has an unusal smell.

I haven't assembled the pen yet because i have a few questions.

How do you finish it? I did one barrel, final turning with a skew. No scratches. Started sanding with 320 grit (wet sanding all). Sanded lenthwise with the lathe off with 400 wet and then micromeshed and novus polished it. It looks fine. When I step out into the sunlight with it, it appears to have tiny scratches all over it going across barrel and up and down as well. What did I do wrong? Or is that just the way it looks.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ed4copies]

Peter,

FIRST, that smell is not unusual ----unfortunately!!

But, it will polish well. And, yes, I have the scratches problems, too. In my experience, I have used Novus 3 then 2 then Hut plastic polish. Several times, sometimes. And black (of ANY material) will show scratches worse than any other color.

Patience. For me, it's a couple day project. Once I see the scratches, I put it away until tomorrow. Then, start at Novus 3 again. IF you have buffing equipment, tripoli, followed by white diamond will do a good job -- but with very limited pressure. Push hard and you will ADD scratches (on the tripoli, particularly).

Maybe Rich Kleinhenz will "pipe up" and add his expertise. He's done a LOT of ebonite.

Also the pipe guys may add something, but I got the buffing ideas at the pipe show, so I think that covers how they do it.

Hope this helps!!

 

[Glenn McCullough]

I've done many ebonite pens and find that sanding at a slow speed with 400, 800 wet, 1200 wet then (wet optional) micromesh 1500 to 12000, followed by a 1200rpm spin using "Finesse it" auto detail polish does the job for me. As always finish each step of sanding going lenth wise by hand. Good Luck.

 

[John M]

Is there a reason to finish going length wise?

 

[aggromere]

lengthwise takes out the scratches from sanding on the lathe.

 

[DozerMite]

We use ebonite at work for our pieces. The sanding is done around the circumference up to 1000 grit then is buffed around the circumference first with tripoli, then the length with tripoli. Then it is buffed lengthwise with white rouge and finally finished off with mineral oil. Comes out flawless. The type of buff wheels will make a difference also.