budnder
Member
The squirrels around me this time of year are working over time to process the Shagbark Hickory nuts that come off the trees. For the ones they eat (I assume they bury some of them), they usually crack the nut in two halves and remove the meat, leaving the nut halves on the ground. I stepped on one of these the other day and was surprised how hard it was, and I wondered how it would cast up. So I gave it a go. I collected some shells and dried them out in a 200 degree oven for 24 hours. For casting, I simply overlapped the halves into a tube, and swirled in an ounce and half of mica colored Liquid Diamonds. I stuck it in a pressure pot overnight at 30PSI. I went light on the mica, as I wanted it to be pretty translucent, or at least I thought that's what I wanted. I called this V1, and I really like the way the shells turned out. It was too transparent for my taste, though, so I doubled up the Mica for V2, and cast a new blank in greens and one in blues. I also tried casting some of the "husks" this time, in red and blue. On the green one, rather than "half shells", I used "eighth and quarter shells", so the shell material in my casting tube was denser.
I really liked the way the green shells turned out, though not wild about the way I left the profile kinda fat on that Zen. I haven't turned the blue blank yet, but I have high hopes. Since the shells kinda remind me of little islands, I used a blend of colors to try and represent a tropical ocean.
I didn't really care for the way the husk blank turned out. It turned fine, but I think they lack character in the way looked in the end. I used a Caballero for kit on that one.
I really prefer Liquid Diamonds for this sort of thing over Alumilite. For me anyway, it's so much more fun to have that long open time. I don't mind waiting the extra day to turn the result. I know it's more expensive, but at an ounce and a half per blank, the cost isn't much of a factor. So far, the squirrel union hasn't organized to start charging me for the shells.
I really liked the way the green shells turned out, though not wild about the way I left the profile kinda fat on that Zen. I haven't turned the blue blank yet, but I have high hopes. Since the shells kinda remind me of little islands, I used a blend of colors to try and represent a tropical ocean.
I didn't really care for the way the husk blank turned out. It turned fine, but I think they lack character in the way looked in the end. I used a Caballero for kit on that one.
I really prefer Liquid Diamonds for this sort of thing over Alumilite. For me anyway, it's so much more fun to have that long open time. I don't mind waiting the extra day to turn the result. I know it's more expensive, but at an ounce and a half per blank, the cost isn't much of a factor. So far, the squirrel union hasn't organized to start charging me for the shells.
