Pen Blank Help

[Paul Ray Moore]

My son turns these celtic knot pens from ebony and holly. I recently purchased a block of ebony 3" x 3" x 12" from woodcraft and cut it up into pen blanks for him. I've used these blanks before from woodcraft and have had no problem but on this set all of the pens cracked after he turned them. He then bought some ebony pen blanks from Bell Forest Products. He has turned 2 from these blanks and they have both cracked.

The woodcraft blank was waxed and so I originally thought that there was too much moisture. So we ordered what were called pen blanks from Bell forest and they came in waxed. We've checked the ends with a moisture meter and they are around 9% so I'm not sure that is the problem.

He originally assembled 3 or 4 and brought them in the house. After being inside for a couple of weeks he looked at them and saw the crack. Then he turned some more and they did the same thing. Thinking it might be the drier air in the house he turned one and left it in the shop unfinished but it also cracked.

Any suggestions? He has turned 9 and it is getting kind of expensive for him.

 

[thewishman]

Not what you want to hear, but ebony has cracking problems for a lot of people. African blackwood is an ebony alternative (although it cracks for me.) Switching the woods to holly with ebony inserts would minimize the cracking issues, too.

 

[edstreet]

Ebony is a very large group of species. It also cracks easily. Heat from turning and sanding can and will do this.

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