All newbies...Danger, danger

[Midi]

One word: Ebony. Stay away newbies, stay away. It's too hard, too hot and miserable to turn.

-Midi

 

[ldb2000]

You spend hours getting it drilled , turned and you get your first flawless CA finish on it , it looks so beautiful . You drag yourself out of the shop and proudly show your better half , your greatest looking pen to date . Then you fall into bed exhausted and dream about it all night ..... It's Stunning !!!!
Then you wake up in the morning and hurry and get dressed and ready for work . You carefully pack your prized pen and when you get to work you gather everyone around for the unveiling . You carefully take out the box and open it to show everyone your masterpiece . You look longingly into the box and there it is ...... a large crack down the length of the pen


Yes Ebony a penturners dream :biggrin:

 

[Pens By Scott]

I got really lucky, or maybe was too new to know better. This was the first and only attempt at Ebony. Was given the blank by my father-in-law. Took for ever to drill, but I was happy with my results.
http://www.pensbyscott.com/images/eltoro/El_Toro_Chrm_Ebony01.JPG

 

[IPD_Mrs]

Drill it on the lathe while blowing air in the drill bit veins at about 45psi. Bet the blank doesn't get much over 110 degrees.

 

[CSue]

Ebony is notorious for cracking. It can be a challenge . . . best saved till . . . well, care and temperature can help alot when working with ebony. I usually take days, off and on, drilling it to make sure it doesn't get too hot. I also take time to avoid the blank heating up too much while turning, sanding and finishing.

 

[phillywood]

One word: Ebony. Stay away newbies, stay away. It's too hard, too hot and miserable to turn.

-Midi

Midi, don't panic unless you spend one arm and two legs on the balnk. that's part of the learning curve. Wait, til you hear my cries when I start dear.

 

[phillywood]

You spend hours getting it drilled , turned and you get your first flawless CA finish on it , it looks so beautiful . You drag yourself out of the shop and proudly show your better half , your greatest looking pen to date . Then you fall into bed exhausted and dream about it all night ..... It's Stunning !!!!
Then you wake up in the morning and hurry and get dressed and ready for work . You carefully pack your prized pen and when you get to work you gather everyone around for the unveiling . You carefully take out the box and open it to show everyone your masterpiece . You look longingly into the box and there it is ...... a large crack down the length of the pen


Yes Ebony a penturners dream :biggrin:

Butch, now youowe us the newbies a lesson about this blank. I am all ears buddy. At least I want to cry but not choke up on it when my time comes.

 

[Ligget]

I refuse to use Ebony now, instead I favour Blackwood as a substitute!

 

[islandturner]

I agree with several posts here -- I've had stunning ebony pens crack, sometimes weeks after they're finished.

Liggot, you say you use Blackwood. Being from Scotland, you likely know that African Blackwood has been used to turn bagpipe drones for a couple of centuries. It's easy to turn and puts up with the constant extreme changes in humidity, associated with the pipes.

I just purchased a piece of Gaboon Ebony -- enough for several blanks. Is this material any better than standard Ebony, or am I going to have all the same frustrations?

Thanks
Steve

 

[DurocShark]

Shelving the blank works for me. Imagine 48 hours on each shelf time below. It *does* work but...

Drill undersize.
Put blank on shelf.
Re-drill to correct size.
Glue tubes.
Put blank on shelf.
Turn close to size.
Put blank on shelf.
Turn to size.
Put blank on shelf.
Put CA finish on.
Put blank on pen.

 

[ldb2000]

Butch, now youowe us the newbies a lesson about this blank. I am all ears buddy. At least I want to cry but not choke up on it when my time comes.

I wish there were some magic chant for this one . Ebony is one of those woods that don't like to play nicely with us pen guys . Heat don't help but I've had Ebony pens crack that never saw heat . They were drilled in stages , turned in a cold shop and not overheated by dull tools , finished with lacquer instead of CA and still it cracked . Wood movement has something to do with it and moisture has something to do with it and just plain dumb luck has something to do with it . Then there were one or two Ebony pens that I made and they never cracked so go figure . Don't try to understand it , just accept it and move on . Ebony cracks .
You can also just let it crack then fix the crack and that might buy you some time but even that don't always work with Ebony and several other crack prone woods .
As Mark said Blackwood is a great alternative for Ebony and is very stable .

 

[ldb2000]

Steve , Gaboon Ebony is the Ebony of which we speak . Good luck .
Don , I have tried that and even letting it sit longer then 48 hours between stages and still it eventually cracked . If you haven't had it crack then keep it up , the luck is on your side . I've even tried rubber glue to glue in the tubes thinking that if the wood could move a little it would help but ....... crack city !

 

[Midi]

Luck, apparently, is on my side - in a big way. I used it for a zen pen and was totally clueless as to it's properties. I just drilled through....hasn't cracked. I made one the other day for the top half of a cigar pen. I drilled slowly...and slower. Hasn't cracked. I'm going to keep going...we'll see. I thank Durocshark for the instructions - I will try it.

This time I just might put together a pen. I just make tubes - if I don't like them, I don't put them together. Will keep you posted on the ebony.

Thanks to everyone for contributing to this post

 

[islandturner]

Steve , Gaboon Ebony is the Ebony of which we speak . Good luck .

Thanks Butch...

I was afraid of that.... Maybe I'll make bigger stuff out of it -- bottle stoppers or something...

Cheers
Steve

 

[Rick_G]

I use ebony all the time for things like center bands and finials. Never had a problem, of course the few times I actually tried to make a pen out of it was a totally different story.

 

[ldb2000]

Luck, apparently, is on my side - in a big way. I used it for a zen pen and was totally clueless as to it's properties. I just drilled through....hasn't cracked. I made one the other day for the top half of a cigar pen. I drilled slowly...and slower. Hasn't cracked. I'm going to keep going...we'll see. I thank Durocshark for the instructions - I will try it.

This time I just might put together a pen. I just make tubes - if I don't like them, I don't put them together. Will keep you posted on the ebony.

Thanks to everyone for contributing to this post

Sorry to say this but just because it hasn't cracked yet don't mean it won't . I've had pens that went months before they cracked .
Certain woods like Ebony and Snakewood are just known for cracking and most will eventually crack . Back to mainly luck , if you have it great but most of us don't .
Ebony works ok for small pieces like centerbands because there isn't as much stress on a small piece as there is on a piece as large as a pen barrel .

 

[Midi]

Good point. I guess ebony can be a fooler. we'll see.

 

[CSue]

I use gaboon ebony. Of the dozen or so pens I've made from it, only one cracked . . . and that was about 2 years after it was made.

Doc explained how to work with ebony very well - clear and to the point. It's a beautiful wood.

 

[phillywood]

So, In conclusion, as Paul McCartney sings "(Ebony and ivory, side by side on my piano, in harmony................) so how did he get them staying in place in a harmony that we can't ?
Or perhaps if we investigate the origin of this wood it may be that the locals put a curse on it that whoever harvests them and try to make something out of them, then the object won't hold up as result of the curse. :biggrin: or it may be that we don't have that TLC touch to make it hold? But, Midi these veterans here have been down that path so many times that their advise are weighed in Gold.
Aren't you glad that I was not an archaeologist, before this? :tongue:

 

[toddlajoie]

so how did he get them staying in place in a harmony that we can't ?

He didn't drill a huge hole through the center and glue it to a piece of metal...

I'd bet it is much more stable when not hollow.

 

[Craftdiggity]

Believe it or not, I've never had an ebony piece fail on me. I've had a cracked blank or two that I couldn't turn, but never had a pen crack after it was finished. It's been some time since I've turned a piece of solid ebony but that was the wood that got me into turning in the first place so I have many pens from my first few months of turning that are still hanging in there. Now Snakewood is a different story. I've never had a pen made from SW that didn't fail. We are talking about a double digit number of pens that all have fully split from end to end. I've also had Pink Ivory split on me twice in the past year or so. Very unexpected, but whatever.

 

[Pens By Scott]

Sorry to say this but just because it hasn't cracked yet don't mean it won't . I've had pens that went months before they cracked .
Certain woods like Ebony and Snakewood are just known for cracking and most will eventually crack . Back to mainly luck , if you have it great but most of us don't .
Ebony works ok for small pieces like centerbands because there isn't as much stress on a small piece as there is on a piece as large as a pen barrel .

So Butch, would Ebony and Snakewood be best used in say something like a segmented pen blank? Maybe where it wouldn't be drill completely through or in small bands, or pin stripes maybe?

Sorry Midi for hijacking your post.

 

[ldb2000]

From my experience yes . Those two woods have never been good for me to make pens from . Of all the Ebony pens I've made only 5 or 6 still survive , that I know of any way and I had even less luck with snakewood , but I've never had a problem with them for centerbands or segmenting work . Ebony is a favorite for centerbands and I have never had one break and Snakewood segments have been fine .

 

[phillywood]

OK, then snake wood is shotty and the Ebony is good for segmenting. I'd like to know if there is list of woods that we are supposed to stabilize or stay away from or not suitable for turning and on and on....... Can any of the veterans help? I sure wouldn't want to spend the money and find out if someone already been down that road and spent the money and time to find out about those woods, unless somebody came up with a solutions for these old problems.
Midi, didn't want to steal you post, but would like to learn something here.

 

[stevers]

I used Ebony,,,,,,,,, once!

 

[penfancy]

I've made two Gaurdians in ebony so far. One for my neighbor, with no mention of cracking. And one that has sat on the mandrel for two weeks in the garage waiting for the pen kit to arrive. It's been very humid and my garage flooded twice through the recant storms here in Houston. So far so good. Both were finished with eee and shellawax as the customers did not want a glossy finish. Could that have something to do with them not cracking post assembly?

 

[KenV]

Very very dense woods are very hard to get dry and snakewood and ebony are certainly amongst the more dense. Neither will take plastic injection (stabalization) and both have a long history of problems.

But both are excellent to turn and both result in an outstanding appearance -- so warrantee the work and be prepared to refinish the pen when it cracks.

It seems that really old long stored ebony works better than more recent stuff (we are talking years and decades) -- and once stable, ebony seems to be quite durable.

Instrument woods are often aged for a long time -- and ebony seems to benefit from age.

I still like to use both snakewood and ebony, but get to refinish from time to time. These are not woods to use for cheap pens -- save them for the top of the line stuff. And do not be in a hurry.

 

[fritz64]

i made 2 pens from 17 yr. old ebony. they are 3 yrs. old and no cracks. i quit ebony while i was ahead. now blackwood.

 

[sbwertz]

I started to do pen turning about ten years ago, but had an accident that sidelined me for a long time. When I started again in April, I had 10 ebony blanks that had been in my very hot, very dry storage room for ten years. Not knowing any better, I turned six of them. Two blew up...one one drilling and on on milling, but I was able to use the other half of each to make a complete pen, so I got 5 pens from those first six blanks. Maybe it was because they were so VERY dry, but not one has split. I still have 4 more blanks. Beginner's luck?

Sharon

 

[Midi]

Hi Sharon,

First, I'm glad your better. I've made three ebony barrels. It has been around six months ago and none of them have cracked. I didn't know beans about ebony when I first used it. I drilled over three inches with a 10.5 bit to make a zen pen. i drilled straight through...hasn't cracked. I also made two barrels for a cigar pen using a 10.5 bit. No cracks. I do think it is beginners luck. I am going to switch to blackwood. Know where I can get some?

Thanks for your reply.

-Midi