PR experiment partner wanted - hornets' nest blank

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jtate

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Okay, I've seen the wonderful PR work some people have done and I'm impressed.

Far too impressed to try it myself!

What I want to do is partner up with somebody for a project.

My Dad gave me this hornet's nest - like a bushel-basket sized thing. As you may know, hornets are the world's first paper-makers. The nest is just chewed up bits of wood, spit out and stuck together by the hornets. I figure someone ought to be able to place blank-sized pieces of the nest into a mold, encase it in PR, and then make some really neat pens. I'll be happy to cut out the blank sized pieces of nest if someone else can do the PR casting and we can split the blanks.

Any takers?

Julia Tate:)
 
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Skye

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It would be quite an undertaking, but I wonder if it would be possible to stabilize the thing well enough that you could 'cut' a 'blank' (terms used loosly) before casting? That may help let it retain it's shape.
 

davidrei

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Heck, I'll try anything once. But I'm still not envisioning how you would cut the nest. Are you assuming you could cut it and make a blank out of a cross section? Are your trying to preserve it's current shape? Or are you thinking it might look good in tiny pieces randomly cast? Are you assuming you could cast the nest whole, then cut it up?
 

Skye

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Originally posted by Gary Max
<br />They make blanks from sun flower seeds-----why not this??

Seeds are crushed. The idea with the nest would be to keep it in it's natural state.
 

its_virgil

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Actually, Dakota Burl is resin impregnated sunflower seed hulls. I've nmot seen a blank from sun flower seeds, crushed or whole, unless a new blank has come along. There is a blank made from resin impregnated "grape nuts", the crunchy cereal. I hae one, maybe I should turn it for breakfast...should go good with a sliced banana and some milk&gt;[:D]

On the hornet's nest...contact Steve at River Ridge Products and see if he thinks the nest would hold up if it were stabilized in chunks and then cut into blanks. http://www.rrpwhite.com

Personally, I think once stabilized (however it is done), cut into blanks and turned into a pen, I don't think one will be able to even till what it was to start with. Could be wrong.

Do a good turn daily!

don

Originally posted by Gary Max
<br />They make blanks from sun flower seeds-----why not this??
 

jtate

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Cool! I'm going to give it a shot!
The nest looks like the ones on these pages
http://pollinator.com/gallery/hornet_nest.htm
and
http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/weeklypics/Weekly_Picture10-18-99.html

I couldn't find a cross section photo. As I understand it, it's the same concept as paperwasp nests, the nest is held together by the ways in which the individual chambers are connected to one another.

Now, to slice horizontally or veritcally...

I'm just glad I don't have to cut this thing on a table saw!

Send me your snail mail address (by email back-channel - juliatateATcomcastDOTnet) if you want a chunk of it to try out.

Julia
 

gerryr

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My guess is that when you try to slice it you will find that it just crumbles. The walls of these things are micro-thin and do not hold up to any sort of abuse. I found one that my son tried to take to school, it survived as mostly a pile of dust.
 

jtate

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Okey-dokey! The nest sliced nicely and I've uploaded some pictures in my album on this site.

I don't know how to insert a picture in this posting so I'm going to have to ask that you go to my album if you weant to see them. Inside the nest, there is a structure that looks like a wasp nest - actually several such structures. I think a cross section of this would make a nice pen blank. It's possible to make a cross section of the outer sort of layers. They cut smoothly with a big knife buty I think the more interesting part is the inner nest. Some cells still have hornets in them!

Yikes! It gave me the willies to handle the thing!

Julia
 

Craig B

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Actually, I have seen this for knife handles in the past. Just mix your resin and then pour. My only problems have been some of the cells get an air pocket in them and you won't know it until you start to turn it down. Yes, I have tried it for pens but the blanks I tried all got air pockets in them.
I would recommend you make sure your resin pours into all of the cells. I haven't had time to try again after last falls failed attempt for pen blanks made out of it.
Hope your attempts work out.
 

jtate

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Craig -

What would you think about doing the stabilization with PR, applying a vaccuum to it once you got the resin all poured? I wonder if that would pull the bubbles out of the cells?

Julia
 
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