Antler CB

Not sure if this should be in "Advanced" or not, but figure everyone will see it either way.

I'm thinking about doing a center band from deer antler. I've never turned antler, but I expect it will be harder that the surrounding wood, and I dont knwo if/what issues that may cause me.

Any tips for success?

I plan a CA finish, which I saw from a search is the way to go for antler. I have some black palm that I picked up on a whim becasue it looked so cool. Dont know how it will look with antler, but I think I gotta give it a go!

I don't think the combination of the two materials will give you any more problems than the two do on their own. The palm has a tendency to yank the black fibers out of the lighter matrix if you try to turn it with a dull tool or take too big a bite. And the antler will pick up black dust when sanding if it is not well sealed with thin ca beforehand. I would turn as close as possible to finished with a sharp skew, then soak with ca and turn a little more, then coat one more time, and sand. Should be a sharp looking combination.

1+ What James said .

soligen said:

Not sure if this should be in "Advanced" or not, but figure everyone will see it either way.

I'm thinking about doing a center band from deer antler. I've never turned antler, but I expect it will be harder that the surrounding wood, and I dont knwo if/what issues that may cause me.

Any tips for success?

I plan a CA finish, which I saw from a search is the way to go for antler. I have some black palm that I picked up on a whim becasue it looked so cool. Dont know how it will look with antler, but I think I gotta give it a go!

Click to expand...

I think it would look cool especially with a rhodium plating.

Wow, no kidding that stuff is hard to turn. I went real slow, so didnt finish last night before I had to shut down when everyone went to bed. I used CA like it was going out of style lol.

I did stumble on a technique that seems to work better. I created a shoulder , then used the parting tool to nibble away a small amount of the shoulder ( < 1/16" at a time). Seems to hold together better becasue the fibers being cut at the bottom of the shoulders are better supported - still will take much sanding.

I got far enough to hold the in-progress work up to the gold kit I have targeted for it - just to realize gold probably isnt the way to go. Thanks for the Rhodium suggestion. I'm going to stop by woodcraft tonight to see what they have. I havn't had a Rhodium kit yet. It would look similar to a Chrome or Platinum wouldn't it?

Rhodium and platinum are actually different metals, but I believe they are used interchangeably when referring to pen kits. But yes, it is a little whiter and less blue than chrome, but the difference is rather minimal.

This pen was a real trial.

The wood was hard to turn, but the real problem is my sanding took me too small. I spent a lot of time trying to build back up with CA, but finally gave up.

First plan was a Platinum Eruo. Gave up and turned it some more for a nickle Deco. Still got a little too small, but this time I was close enough to build it back up with CA.

Got done - buffed it with white compund - and wow - my first time buffing a pen. Amazing glass like shine. I was just tickled pink.

Only problem is that I notice defects under the finish on the lower tube - looks like cloudy areas - not sure what it is.

So I punt and save the more expensive kit - trim the barrels a bit to match the hardware size for a slimline, and put it in a chrome slimline.

So now here is the kicker - now I dont see the defects (well, if I look real hard). I could have used the nicer kit. Is it possible that light entering the finish from the edges before assembly made them much worse? Anyone notice something like this before?

I really like the look - its just not the pen I envisioned when I started.

I was just re-examining the pen. Looks like the "defects" may just be low spots in the finish that ended up not getting the full benefit of buffing. I also have a small crack that looks like resulted when I pressed in the finial.

I'll try to get a pic up tomarrow.

Any feedback welcome

I decided to disassemble the pen and re-finish it. Sanded and used 2 applications of thin CA to (hopefully) fill in the crack. Sanded again and did several coats of medium CA/BLO, sanded and buffed.

Quite the trial, but I think I learned a lot.

Result is in this thread:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=62382

Nice pen! I haven't tried palm yet but it looks nice!