Leopardwood???

[sandking]

Well I tried turning a leapordwood pen this morning. Has anyone else used this wood before? It seemed to just splinter away even when using a scraper. I had to use a lot of thin CA b/c I felt it would blowout at any moment. There was even a shallow black void about a 1/16" wide that I filled with CA. I was able to get it nice and smooth by starting with 150 grit and moving up.

Here are my questions:

1. I used compressed air to blow out all the dust. In the black void I described above it looks like some of the CA glue dried white. Should I try and rub some acetone to get it out and then try again?

2. Does acetone eat away the wood or break it down?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Skye]

Can you work an "oops" band into it? I doubt thre's going to be much you can do to save it. How big is this void? Can you dremel it out and fill it with some other material?

 

[sandking]

Sorry for being a newbie, but what is an oops band? The vois is just black, it doesn't go all the way to the tube, so if I filled it with CA until it was level with the wood. I kind of liked it as it showed the imperfections in the wood. The only issue I had was that the CA dried white in half of it so I wanted to try and redo the fill.

 

[Skye]

The white is from moisture hitting the glue, it's going to be a bear to get it out as it's pretty bonded to the wood. Acetone doesnt make the glue just fall off, it's more of a softener from what I've seen. So, you're still probably going to have a problem filling it clean. You could always remove all the white CA and pack in some coffee grounds with CA. You'll still have the inclusion, it'll just be filled with dark material.

A pic would really help as there are voids, then there are <b>voids</b>.

An oops band is just where a segment of the pen blank is removed and something else inlayed, like the centerbands in my album, look at the green and black pen.

 

[dbriski]

I have done quite a few leopardwood pens recently. I use a roughing gouge to bring it to round and then an oval skew in a slicing cut (skew on an angle not flat) to the bushings. It does like to get all hairy in the roughing stages but then cleans up nicely with the skew. Leopardwood has very open pores I have used sanding sealer and CA. Both work well but the sanding sealer takes for ever to fill up the pores. What I usually do is rough it, bring it within a hair of finished sized, take it off the lathe, soak it in thin CA, let that dry completely. Put it back on the lathe, sand off the extra CA, put on a couple coats of thick CA (and BLO if you wish) to fill the pores, sand down to finish size and finish as you prefer. This helps deepen the color and add depth to the wood too.

 

[Jamie]

I don't think acetone does much to organic material other than removing natural oils (dry out & raise the grain), perhaps alcohol would do. Try putting some sanding dust in your void, then CA. I have 2 pens out of 6 that I did in LW that developed small cracks a few weeks after I finished them, 1/3 scrapped out "ouch". Good luck.

 

[sandking]

Jamie those pens, did you finish them with CA and they cracked? I was making this one to sell so I want to make sure it holds up.

Also can someone explain how to use coffee grinds as a filler? Do you just pour a little CA in the void then pack with grinds?

 

[dbriski]

You can check out my website in the gallery, I have 2 europeans and 1 baron in leapordwood. I had one other european that didn't turn out well but I think it was the finish not the wood. After a couple of days a lot of white marks appeared under the finish almost like the CA was cracking/pealing away from the wood. I haven't had any wood crack and I am bad at heating up the blank during my finishing.

 

[DCBluesman]

To fill a void with just about anything, turn to about 1/16 oversized. Undercut the void a little (if possible) for added stability. Then fill the void (or partially fill it if the void wraps around the barrel), introduce some thin CA from the edge of the void and let it wick into the material. Add a touch of accelerant and move to any other parts that need filling, then repeat until your fill material is just above the level of the barrel. Skew it level and continue sanding.

 

[sandking]

Thanks everyone. I didn't realize that the CA finish can change after a couple of days like that. I thought once it was dry and polished it was done. That being said how long do you folks wait before selling them or giving them away? I've been putting them out a day or two after they're done.

 

[Skye]

I think a day or two is fine for most materials. Others, weeks or months. The ones that are a risk need to be sold with a warning, I think. I just tell them how temperamental the material is, the care you went through to make it without it cracking, and how they should care for it. If they leave it in the car and it cracks, maybe they'll think twice about asking for it fixed. If it cracks out of nowhere, they'll be more likely to ask for it fixed.

That's just how I’d do it. Be as honest as possible while not leaving yourself out to be screwed.