Turning an Oak Pen

[Madison Lathe]

I need to turn six pens out of Oak. When I turned the first one the Oak was very plain looking, can you put a stain on Oak? When would you apply the stain - ex. after sanding with 600 grit sand paper or prior to that?

 

[jttheclockman]

I need to turn six pens out of Oak. When I turned the first one the Oak was very plain looking, can you put a stain on Oak? When would you apply the stain - ex. after sanding with 600 grit sand paper or prior to that?

Absolutely you can stain oak. When to put it on is a matter of choice. What happens is the more you sand and the finer you sand you close the pores of the wood. Now with oak you have some grain that is natural dark to begin with. When you do this the wood will take on less stain as opposed to wood that has been stained before sanding. What kind of stains used will also produce different looks. Gel stains do not penetrate as well and as fast as say oil based stains. These are used alot when control of color is needed. Waterbase stains will raise the grain and are not as deep colored as oil base stains.

I think you need to have some sample pieces made to give you the look you want. Make sure all are treated the same when sampling. Good luck.

 

[BSea]

Is it a particular piece of oak that has some special meaning? If not, you can get some nice spalted oak that has a lot of character. You just have to look for it. I have yet to use stain on any wooden pen. But that doesn't mean you can't. You might try some walnut oil to enhance the grain.

 

[commercialbuilder]

I use any stain that can be mixed in DNA, I stain the blank after I have finished sanding by either rubbing it on for a light application to immersing the blank in the stain and letting it sit. I would suggest taking a scrap and sanding it down then trying both methods to get the desired effect.
I usually start by only using a small amount of stain in the DNA then adding more to get the final color I want.

 

[Scruffy]

Their are a number of options when dealing with oak.

1) Oil only. Try applying while sanding with water proof sand paper. Then let set for about 6+ hours and wipe the film off before continuing. (Tung, BLO, Mineral oil, I need to try walnut; I have all, but experiment on scraps before choosing.)
2) Gel stains. Works great. General Finish has a big range of colors.
3) Oil based stains. Again I prefer GF.
4) Water based stains. They are great for making your own colors. You buy the tint and mix with water. So you can control the richness of color.
5) Special handling. With Oak, because of the deep open grain, you have some special characteristics. You can stain the oak a dark stain which will absorb into the grain. Then sand the surface, this exposes the grain. Then you can staind with a lighter different color stain. This will pop the grain and give contrasting colors in the oak.

I have done all these on furniture in the past. Yet to try on pens, but oak is oak.

 

[Monty]

You can also dye/stabilize oak with Cactus juice and the color would be throughout the whole blank, not just on the surface.

 

[Scruffy]

By the Way..

McFeely's is having a 15% off sales on all their GF products. (Online)

 

[Ray McLeod]

I have made several pens from oak...It makes a big difference which type of oak you use. White oak does not have much character and is very plain. Red Oak will look good without a stain.
Ray

 

[Joe S.]

Cut grooves and use a wire to burn in a black line. It's a great way to wake up a piece of wood.

 

[StephenM]

If you didn't use CA, you can also fume the oak which gives it an extremely rich look.