Anybody turn Purple Sage??

[rblakemore]

Anybody ever turn Texas Purple Sage?? Also called Cenizo or Leucophyllum frutescens , I found this piece in the wilds of my mother's backyard. It has a great look, heavily twisted and a golden grain. It is pretty fragile and I will have to be pretty careful cutting it. Any other ideas on how to handle this??
I think that I can cut several pen blanks from it. It is about 5 feet long.

 

[robutacion]

Anybody ever turn Texas Purple Sage?? Also called Cenizo or Leucophyllum frutescens , I found this piece in the wilds of my mother's backyard. It has a great look, heavily twisted and a golden grain. It is pretty fragile and I will have to be pretty careful cutting it. Any other ideas on how to handle this??
I think that I can cut several pen blanks from it. It is about 5 feet long.

Well, if is that fragile, I would cut it in sections of 6" or so, make sure it is dry or dry in in an oven at 70°celsius for as long as it needs (weigh 1 piece and mark it, when no longer loses weight, is considered dry).

After that I would have it stabilized to harden and make it more stable, after that you decide what to do, cast it or used it as....!

What average diameter does thing thing has...???

Cheers
George

 

[Crashmph]

That definitely looks ripe for custom casting for stabilization.

 

[plantman]

Up here in Wisconsin we cut back the Purple Sage to the ground every Fall, so I have never had a branch large enough to try to make a pen out of. But with some of the other shrubs I have used for pens I have found it best to seal the ends to keep them from splitting as they dry. I leave them full length until I want to use a piece to make a pen. I would than cut the length I needed and follow George's instructions on making sure it is dry and stabilize it before turning. Jim S

 

[ottotroll]

"Purple Sage, runnin through my brain...'




(I couldn't help myself)