CA and Wenge

[ryankelley]

I turned my first pen with wenge today and the finish was the worst experience i have had. I noramly use 6 coats of thick CA and mm to 3600, when I finished mm I could see white spots every where. Also I beaded the blank to hide some bad spots and the finish did not take well there either. Should I just go with thin CA until I get 10-12 layers. This is on a Jr. Statesman kit, I know I will have to take it apart and, I don't want to ruin the kit taking it apart, what is the best way to disassemble a Jr. kit?
Kind of freaking out and rambling, sorry but I need the help.

 

[mick]

Get a set of transfer punches from Harbor Freight to knock the pen parts out of the tubes.
Wenge has fairly open grain so it's very easy to trap dust in it. Use compressed air and blow it out well and use thin CA until sealed....after that you can switch to thick or medium whatever you'd normally use.

 

[jttheclockman]

I turned my first pen with wenge today and the finish was the worst experience i have had. I noramly use 6 coats of thick CA and mm to 3600, when I finished mm I could see white spots every where. Also I beaded the blank to hide some bad spots and the finish did not take well there either. Should I just go with thin CA until I get 10-12 layers. This is on a Jr. Statesman kit, I know I will have to take it apart and, I don't want to ruin the kit taking it apart, what is the best way to disassemble a Jr. kit?
Kind of freaking out and rambling, sorry but I need the help.

Wenge is an oily wood and also a stringy wood or to put it another way a wood with alot of fibererous ends. It is not a true dark brown, there are white and yellow specks in it. You maybe highlighting them. Then if you used thick CA and sanded you may have dust residue trapped underneath the layers. I would use the thin CA to seal the wood for the first couple coats and after that use what you want.

 

[LEAP]

With Wenge I always turn the blank down to a few thousandths above the bushings then flood with thin CA before turning the last little bit. This helps seal the fibers and reduces the little voids I get if I don't seal the blank.

 

[Jgrden]

With Wenge I always turn the blank down to a few thousandths above the bushings then flood with thin CA before turning the last little bit. This helps seal the fibers and reduces the little voids I get if I don't seal the blank.

This might be off sugject a little but I bought Wenge thinking it had a purple hue to it, according to the pictures. I was a plain brown wood.

 

[programmergeek]

Wenge is usally brown no purple. If you want purple purple hart is the way to go I think when it is exposed to the sun it turs brown with age and you wind up with a brown purple thing. Maybe someone else can comment.