Is this pen doomed?

[azamiryou]

I made a Jr. Gent II from ebony (actually, segmented with acrylic). It's finished with CA, and this is one of my favorite pens. But I keep reading about ebony cracking, like it's a foregone conclusion it will.

I made it in December. Since then, it's been subjected to temperatures ranging from room to pretty cold (maybe not quite freezing). It has also spent time in a range of humidities, moving from the mid-Atlantic coast to the mountains of New Mexico and back, experiencing everything in between on the way.

What I want to believe is that if the pen can go through all of this without cracking, it's not going to crack. Is this reasonable, or just wishful thinking?

 

[Boz]

I have only made a few ebony pens and when they crack it is right after it is made. I would suspect that if it has held together for a good long time you have a better chance of it staying together. That being said in my business "media for fine art ink jet printing" I have seen prints that have developed cracks years after. I most cases we can trace it back to not letting the inks dry before the protective top coat is applied. The internal stresses build up and the surface cracks kind of like a mini earthquake.

 

[MatthewZS]

Just my observed first hand two cents.....

I just moved from texas to oregon and moved a bunch of ebony with me. Some went by plane in checked baggage, some went by postal, some went UPS and none of it cracked either in blank form or finished pen form.

 

[MorganGrafixx]

I've made a handful of Ebony pens. The 2 I have left are the Classic American that I actually screwed up during assembly, so they just serve as "floor models". Either way, I have had them for going on 2 years now and neither one as even so much as a hairline fracture in the wood. This is saying something too, because they have been indoors, stored out in the garage for months on end, dropped, thrown and most any other manner of disaster and still are no worse for wear.

 

[jimjonespa48]

I made 2 ebony cigar pens a few months ago, one chrome and one silver. When I got them out to show a week ago, one was split right down the middle and the other was fine. Made at same time from same ebony source and stored together in pen folder. No explanation why one is fine and the other needed to be redone.

 

[azamiryou]

Thanks for the input, everyone. It sounds like maybe my favorite pen will be okay (hope, hope, hope)!

 

[jskeen]

If you assume that the old saw about ebony pens only having two categories, those that have cracked, and those that are going to at some point, you may very well keep that one for the next 20 years and it will be fine. The minute you relax and think to yourself "whew, this is one of the ones that will not crack" you have offended the wood gods and they will send a crack gremlin after you.

(my mythology is no less ridiculous than anybody else's, and just as impossible to prove, so I stand behind it. Hopefully way behind it).

 

[JerrySambrook]

Some of the "myth" about ebony or others cracking also can be attributed to the glue line that is underneath the wood as well as the care in the turning process.
If there is not a complete glueline underneath with a semi-flexible glue, then there can be a good tendancy for cracking.
If the bond underneath is made of too rigid a glue, and is exposed to a fair amount of change, then there can be a tendency to have cracking.
If, during the turning process, one attempts to remove too much material at once, it too can cause cracking to start due to overstressing the wood.
If the sanding process is done too vigourously, it to will introduce heat cracking.
The later two will typically start the cracking from the outside in, while the first two typically start from the inside out.
Can they be detected, no for the first two, yes TYPICALLY for the second two. Careful examination and cleaning of the wood before actual finishing.

Some of these cracking forms can be prevented easily by the care in turning/finishing, others by material choice.

 

[76winger]

I've made several Ebony pens and pen/pencil sets and haven't had any problems with cracking yet (or at least that's ever been reported). Snakewood is the only I've experienced cracking on so far, and even on that is was a very fine hairline crack that I filed with a couple coats of CA and re-sanded/finished and all was well.

Maybe the suggestion above about glue coating has something to do with it. I always coat the inside of the blank as well as the tube before assembly and normally use epoxy for wood blanks, but CA for acrylic (with no particular reason why).

 

[BKelley]

The only thing I had crack after finishing was a water buffalo sierra and a casein navigator. The water buffalo devoloped a small crack that might be repaired, but the casein really came from together to apart big time. Some materials I think that you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Ben

 

[azamiryou]

The minute you relax and think to yourself "whew, this is one of the ones that will not crack" you have offended the wood gods and they will send a crack gremlin after you.

Well, I'm not a religious sort, but I'll keep checking the pen... just in case!

 

[crabcreekind]

i would assume that once the pen is finished that it couldnt crack because the finish seals off the wood from air