Need advice on saving celtic knot blanks

[thrustmonkey]

I need some advice on saving some celtic knot blanks.

I have a chance to sell a few pens on the side (Pssst! Hey mister! Wannabuya pen?) at a "old world fair" type of festival that I volunteer at every year. PSI's Knights Armor and Celtic would be perfect, so I ordered a few. With money and time being really tight, I ordered celtic knot blanks from Wood N Whimsies (not enough time to make my own).

Measured, cut, drilled (on lathe, exact center), glued the blanks, 5 each, and started to turn the Knights Armor tonight.

Lo and behold, to get a complete knot, I had to turn the knot section down smaller than the rest of the blank! This has happened to 2 blanks so far, and I'm not sure what to do. Right now the blanks are shaped like an hour glass. I don't think they would look or feel right if I just finished them and tried to sell them.

I could take the ends of the blanks down a hair, start filling the knot area with ca, then give them a complete ca finish. I don't know about laying the ca on too thick, if it would crack or anything like that.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? I would sure like to try and salvage these blanks.

Ross

 

[Tim'sTurnings]

Pictures would really help in getting some opinions and ideas from the members here.
Tim.

 

[plantman]

Ross; I can think of two ways to solve your problem, but not sure how the hour glass blank will look after using either one. But it wll be a different effect. First would be to cast your blank in PR and turn to pen size. Second would be to build up the center section with CA. I have used both methods to correct problems with blanks. If you choose the CA route, use thick or gap filling CA. (Note!!! the CA and Accelerator I use are made by the same manufacturer, so the thick CA will not cloud or bubble when the Accelerator is sprayed on. That can't be said for all brands) Test it before you apply it to your blanks. I would wipe 4 coats of thick CA on the center section of your blank to build up that area, spray, wipe dry, add 4 more coats, spray, wipe, and continue until you have built up this area and the ends higher than you need. Use your skew or whatever tool you have to smooth out any bumps or high spots, sand and polish. I have applied 30 or more coats of thick CA in just a few minutes using this method without bubbleing or turning white. I actualy use a 1 inch medium metal file to smooth out my blanks, followed by a fine metal file to remove most of the marks before sanding with the lathe stopped to 1200, than polishing with One-Step plastic polish. Jim S