My new "private" stock

[Wolfcoast]

Well I lucked into some good cherry burl a fellow woodworker had sitting in his workshop for 5 years. Someone was going to buy them for knife handles but never came back. Friend is a cabinet maker so didn't have a use for them and sold them to me cheap.

I attached a picture of 2 of the blocks. One of my Designer pens is there for size reference. All in all I got 10 blocks like the ones you see in the picture, and about 15-20 other various size boards from the same burl.

I've had them for over a week now and can't figure out what type of pen I want to use them on. Definitely not slimline material here hehe.

I would like to ask what would be the best way to stabilize these? While they are mostly solid, they do have the voids that are common in burls.

Thanks!

 

[thewishman]

River Ridge does a good job.

http://www.rrpwhite.com/

 

[jskeen]

Kinda depends how thick they are. If they are 1/2 like most knife slabs, you're going to be hard pressed to make pens out of them. Any glue line will stand out as a change in grain pattern. You might be able to cast another half inch of colored alumalite onto them and do half and half pens, but most of the interest in cast wood pens comes from mating an unsawn natural edge up to the resin. I'm not sure a straight line junction between the resin and the wood would play that well. (but I might be wrong) If they are only 1/2 inch thick bookmatched slabs they really are best suited to knifemaking, but you might find a knifemaker with some thicker stock that is willing to trade.

Anything that is 3/4 inch thick can definately be cut into blanks then pressure cast with resin to fill in voids and harden (to a degree) soft spots in the wood. I would choose a color that compliments the wood like a gold or brown/red rather than an obviously artificial blue or green or the like, since the pen will be mostly wood with small inclusions of resin (but hey, that's just me)

 

[Wolfcoast]

All of the smaller bricks are just over 3/4" thick. A couple of the larger pieces are even 1.5" thick so all should be useable for the most part.

 

[jskeen]

Ahh, good snag then. You are in a position to make a couple of choices then. Do you send them out for stabilization, or do it yourself? Sending it out can be expensive, but pretty much guarantees every blank is sellable as a premium blank. If you have an established market and sales history, this may be the simplest method.

If you decide to do it yourself there are several threads here that detail numerous methods and the equipment needed for them. And of course the simplest and one of the most efficient methods is to simply soak the wood down with thin CA as you turn and fill in any voids with wood dust and CA.

As for which kits to put your finished blanks on, I have found that it is difficult to impossible to recover the cost of premium blanks on most ballpoint kits. The exception to this rule of thumb would probably be the 8mm euro kit in titanium or platinum. Any of the rollerball/fountain pen kits would probably work. I tend to use the simpler, less ornate kits with fancy woods. The emperor/lotus type kits tend to clash with very figured burls, (again, my opinion only, YMMV)

Whatever you do, good luck and post some pictures of the finished products.