robutacion
Member
Hi peoples,
Since acquiring my wood stabilisation system I have tried it in a few wood species, with various results but, I wondered how much "silica" would affect the stabilisation results.
Since I found the old tree from a slight different colouration than my normal Golden Wattle, reason why I call it the "new" G. W., people really like its reds and blacks and the wood is almost all gone.
One of the best sellers has been the pen blanks in cross cut, they do sell very well but, and while I had plenty of this wood to chose from, I focussed of the logs and branches that had live wood, where the reds are bright and the wood is solid, while the dead wood has more black spalting but also lots of soft to very soft wood.
Being cross cut, these blanks are becoming far too fragile as the way I cut them for best effect, I cut the boards at 130mm wide with the pith at the centre, proving equal or close to, ends/halves. The very thing that makes them attractive, makes them most fragile so, after all the live/solid wood gone, I'm left with the logs/pieces that I have been pushing a side as not the ideal stuff.
What is left of it now, I'm not comfortable in letting it go as is, as I know that most people used to use them will be disappointed with their softness and may not know or have what is require to harden those blanks before start working on them so, I'm stabilising them (only the cross cut at the moment...!) and charge extra for the stabilisation that works @ $1.50 per blanks (the softer=more juice...!).
What I also did was to experiment adding some colour in the juice (green, red, black, blue) and see what would come up. I have used 4 glass coffee jars to put a few blanks for each colour and do them all at the same time (big stabilisation chamber, 16lt).
The jars were a little shorter than I would like as they didn't allow for much extra juice over the blanks so, is very possible that the end that was on top, didn't get as much juice as the bottom part, and explain why the top end of the blanks didn't seem to have take much colours however, turning the round and CA them, I can see that, the colours did not penetrated or set in an even way, and that is the "silica" stopping the coloured juice to penetrate and stay in some spots...!
I believe that, the juice did penetrate enough through out the wood as while turning, the wood was solid all the way but, the colours are very "patchy" to say the least.
There is also the effect of the "chatoyance" in this wood, that provides and interesting effect on the coloured woods, but at the same time, making them look that 2 sided have more colour than the other 2, this is caused by the chatoyance, indeed...!
Anyway, now that I've got them done, I decided to show them here and explain what happened and why, there will be a few among you that have got some of this New Golden Wattle from me so, they know what's up with the cross blanks from now on..!
What would be your preferred colour and why (if you know)...!
Cheers
George
Since acquiring my wood stabilisation system I have tried it in a few wood species, with various results but, I wondered how much "silica" would affect the stabilisation results.
Since I found the old tree from a slight different colouration than my normal Golden Wattle, reason why I call it the "new" G. W., people really like its reds and blacks and the wood is almost all gone.
One of the best sellers has been the pen blanks in cross cut, they do sell very well but, and while I had plenty of this wood to chose from, I focussed of the logs and branches that had live wood, where the reds are bright and the wood is solid, while the dead wood has more black spalting but also lots of soft to very soft wood.
Being cross cut, these blanks are becoming far too fragile as the way I cut them for best effect, I cut the boards at 130mm wide with the pith at the centre, proving equal or close to, ends/halves. The very thing that makes them attractive, makes them most fragile so, after all the live/solid wood gone, I'm left with the logs/pieces that I have been pushing a side as not the ideal stuff.
What is left of it now, I'm not comfortable in letting it go as is, as I know that most people used to use them will be disappointed with their softness and may not know or have what is require to harden those blanks before start working on them so, I'm stabilising them (only the cross cut at the moment...!) and charge extra for the stabilisation that works @ $1.50 per blanks (the softer=more juice...!).
What I also did was to experiment adding some colour in the juice (green, red, black, blue) and see what would come up. I have used 4 glass coffee jars to put a few blanks for each colour and do them all at the same time (big stabilisation chamber, 16lt).
The jars were a little shorter than I would like as they didn't allow for much extra juice over the blanks so, is very possible that the end that was on top, didn't get as much juice as the bottom part, and explain why the top end of the blanks didn't seem to have take much colours however, turning the round and CA them, I can see that, the colours did not penetrated or set in an even way, and that is the "silica" stopping the coloured juice to penetrate and stay in some spots...!
I believe that, the juice did penetrate enough through out the wood as while turning, the wood was solid all the way but, the colours are very "patchy" to say the least.
There is also the effect of the "chatoyance" in this wood, that provides and interesting effect on the coloured woods, but at the same time, making them look that 2 sided have more colour than the other 2, this is caused by the chatoyance, indeed...!
Anyway, now that I've got them done, I decided to show them here and explain what happened and why, there will be a few among you that have got some of this New Golden Wattle from me so, they know what's up with the cross blanks from now on..!
What would be your preferred colour and why (if you know)...!
Cheers
George
