New (sorta) from Colorado

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murkwood

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Joined
Dec 24, 2012
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9
Location
Grand Junction Colorado
I've lurked and learned! This is my favorite browsing site and has been for some months now.

I've made probably 40 pens over the last 7 or 8 years with 30-35 of them being in the last few months.

And I have learned more in the last few months than I thought was possible (and I know that I have barely scratched the surface!)!
 

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murkwood

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Grand Junction Colorado
New from Colorado

And I was wondering if anybody recognizes the light colored wood?
I know what it is as I harvested it. I just have never heard of it being used for much of anything!
 

murkwood

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Grand Junction Colorado
New from Colorado

SMJ1957: No, not peach. Haven't lucked into any of that, yet!

MREDBURN: No, not aspen. I have an aspen log around somewhere, drying.

Here is pic of a different pen, same wood. No finish, won't finish until I decide how to fill the occlusions, and with what.

Hint: This wood smells REALLY BAD when working it.
 

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murkwood

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Grand Junction Colorado
New from Colorado

First things first: Thank you all for the warm welcome!

As to the wood:

Actually, it is Greasewood. Or Chico bush. It is a bush that grows in the western US, and probably elsewhere.

I like it a lot,except for the odor. It is very fine grain and polishes well. If I could figure (read "afford") a decent way to fill the occlusions and cracks with a colored resin, I think it would go over well. I showed the greasewood pen from the first photo to a local doctor and he liked it a lot.

It is difficult to get pieces large enough to work. Actually finding pieces big enough is not tough, it is just that by the time you turn it down to pen sized, the occlusions and cracks have moved into bad locations!

CA covers the odor pretty well.

Haynie: I used to live in Cortez, about a century or so ago!
 

D.Oliver

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Joined
May 10, 2011
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3,531
Location
Faith SD
First things first: Thank you all for the warm welcome!

If I could figure (read "afford") a decent way to fill the occlusions and cracks with a colored resin, I think it would go over well.


You can fill occlusions with coffe grounds and then CA glue. Turn and sand as normal. Works well on dark Inclusions. You can also do the same thing with saw dust. People even used poweder pigments, crushed turqouise, and several other fillers. I'll see if I can't find some links for you.
 

murkwood

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Grand Junction Colorado
Derek, my first thought was to find something like cactus juice. Something thin that I could pressure into the cracks.

The cracks are often part of the occlusions. I don't know if you are familiar with greasewood but the occlusions start out as rather dramatic "eyes" on the bark that extend into the wood towards the center of the limb, usually at an angle from the surface inward.

My thought was to use a colored resin forced into the cracks and occlusions to sort of kill about 3 birds with one stone so to speak.

I am kind of leaning towards the cactus juice where the blank is in a mold such that the resin won't drain out after hitting it with a vacuum then pressure but I think it would need to be a catalyzed resin.

Now I am trying to fill the occlusions in the second pen with CA and crushed iron pyrite. Lately I have been destroying pens when I go back to change something. I will post pics if this works at all.

I also tend to blab on and on. Apologies

Mark
 
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