Pits In The Wood?

[pauly99]

I just turned a Honduran Rosewood in hopes of making my first non-slimline pen. The blank turned well but there are a couple of pits or holes where you can literally see the brass tube.

#1 Should I fill in those pits with shavings and CA glue?

#2 Are particular woods more prone to this pitting?

 

[gbpens]

Either sanding dust from the wood or a contrasting powder such as turquoise tru-stone mixed with CA can be used. The wood dust will tend to be darker than the solid wood. Contrasting color can make for an interesting effect. Shavings tend to be a bit large and could leave tiny pits which would need to be filled again. Press any fill into the hole. Let it harden and use a skew to take off the excess.

 

[plantman]

Fill in the holes with matching saw dust and CA. In this dark wood you won't even see it. I will usualy take any scrapes of blank I have left over and run it over sandpaper to get filler for holes. Jim S

 

[pauly99]

Thanks for the advice. I will try to grab some saw dust (although grabbing some turquoise does sound like a nice option too), mix it with CA and pack it in. I imagine that I won't have to wait very long before being able to turn this tonight.

 

[triw51]

I use sycamore saw dust I had a lot from a project I did earlier. It usually turns black when mixed with CA and most woods have dark spots so it blends right in. I also have some sycamore dust that has fine metal filings mixed in. When it is polished you get tiny spects of reflection I do this in spalted wood and get a depth.

 

[pauly99]

This Honduran Rosewood was a mixture of dark and light wood with about 70% of it being dark. The dark piece was not pitted whatsoever but the light piece did have some pitting. I'll see if I can figure out what might go well (some contrast) to fill in the holes.

 

[pauly99]

This is how the pen turned out. Still pitted but much better than how it originally looked. 4th pen so I'm still learning. Please be kind.

Honduran Rosewood with Sedona kit.

 

[kooster]

Why not just leave it as is . . . natural, and let time take its course with handling oils etc. Outside of the box, not every pen needs to be finished to a high gloss, extremely smooth and flawless product. Just a thought !!! Pen looks great.

 

[mikespenturningz]

Hey nice job on that pen. I like the contrast in that blank.

 

[pauly99]

I did use General's Wood Turners Finish. Initially started sanding at 600 grit which was a mistake. Then added half a dozen more coats of WTF and micro mesh'd it to how you see it now.

 

[B Wo]

That is a really cool blank. Good looking pen.