owlelope
Member
I bought two holly pen blanks today. I have done some work with holly and I know other woods bleed into it when sanding. What kind of issues will I get into sanding and finishing the holly pens?
finishing holly
- Thread starter owlelope
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depends on exactly you are going to do with it
toddlajoie
Member
Yea, I've done plane holly pens with CA finishes that came out fantastic. Te HUT wax sticks worked surprisingly well also, tho by no means as durable... I would suggest soaking with thin CA during sanding to stop the sanding dust from settling in if you're going to segment it...
jttheclockman
Member
Wide open question. You do not mention if these are plain holly, or segmented in some way. Are these in raw form of holly where you are turning it down???
I show an example of a holly and gabon ebony pen I segmented not long ago. I had no problem with bleeding because I never hit it with sandpaper. I used a skew to get me to finished size and shape and then thin ca to seal. Since I did this one I learned a little trick when working with holly and trying to keep that pure white look and that is to bleach it after getting close to final size. I did not do this in this pen and you can see that the CA gave the holly abit of yellow tint. I am currently working on one that I bleached and it looks alot better.
Dustygoose
Member
I did a simple Holly/Mahogony segmented pen pencil set. Soaked with thin CA then 400,600. Then CA (medium) for the finish
plantman
Member
I do find a thin CA coat before final turning keeps the Holly clean, but it also darkens it to look like Antique Ivory. I hand sand with the grain and use a tac rag to remove all dust. Never have tried bleach, but I will the next time I use Holly. Something learned again today. Jim S