whatwoodido
Member
I just wanted to encourage people not to overlook some prime sources of pen blank material. Sometimes the scraps from other turning or other wood working projects can become beautiful pens.
Drew
Drew
Originally posted by William Young
<br />Drew;
Buying scraps from turners of bigger projects sound like an excellent idea. Too bad I dont know of any turners around where I live.
Over the weekend I am going to be cutting down a couple very old cherry trees. They are mostly dead except for a couple branches that still produce leaves and a few cherries every year. About 3 feet up on one trunk is a large swelling and I dont know if it is a knot or a burl. It could prove interesting. Most of those trees will be firewood but I am wondering if anyone here has turned cherry wood or if it is even worth considering as a pen blank source.
W.Y.
Originally posted by woodspinner
<br />If you want the shavings finer just run them in a kitchen blender. They will need to run several minutes to be fine. This is how I make some of my crack fill for larger items.
Originally posted by RussFairfield
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Have you tried coffee grounds??
Fill with fresh coffee grounds straight from the can. Flood it with thin CA-glue and you have a repair that looks like bark. No need for an accelerator because the coffee does that for you. Vary the grind for a different texture.
Thank you for the welcome Lou. I've been a member here for almost a year but I find it difficult time-wise to keep up with being on the Penmakers' Guild Council, being in the Guild group, contributing what I can to the Yahoo Penturners group, and also running my own group, (StoneTurners). So I apologize for being a lurker and not contributing here, but as much as I would love to be everywhere at once, there are often just not enough hours in the day to do it all.Originally posted by DCBluesman
<br />Welcome Pat and thanks for the laugh...particularly at the "boys'" expense!
Originally posted by RussFairfield
<br />Pat,
>I must be missing something here...I have never tried it with Corian, but I have run turquoise chips through it.<
What you're missing Russ is probably our different definitions of what constitutes "chips", lol. I didn't define that, (on purpose - it's embarrasing enough without spelling it out in detail, lol.) My "chips" back then were about 1/16 inch thick and about 1/2 inch square! I don't know what size "chips" might acutally work in a blender or coffee grinder, but I can tell you that those didn't! I suspect that you are talking about something quite a bit smaller.
For my poor ego's sake, please keep in mind that this was 6 or 7 years ago and I was very naive about some things then [:I] - I was trying to mix kitchen knowledge with shop work. I have learned a WHOLE LOT about tools, machinery and materials since then, lol.
Also, I'm quite content these days to spend my money on some beautiful, fine-grind, crushed Turquoise or Malachite from Arizona Silhouette, rather than trying to chop up Corian in my blender or coffee grinder.
Coffee grounds sound quite doable though, I'm up for that!
Pat
Originally posted by PatLawson
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<br />Pat,
For my poor ego's sake, please keep in mind that this was 6 or 7 years ago and I was very naive about some things then [:I] - I was trying to mix kitchen knowledge with shop work. I have learned a WHOLE LOT about tools, machinery and materials since then, lol.
Pat
Been there do that[]. I have a few baggies of corian, ebony, cocobolo, purple heart, well you get the idea. Great fill stuff. And Pat, it's good to see you here, even if only to remind of the blender story[]Originally posted by bajacrazy
<br />Can't tell you how much Corian dust and fine particles that I throw away each week. At least two 55 gal barrels per week. No need to run through the wife's blender after it reaches dust collector. Might work good for small inlays etc. if mixed with clear epoxy or clear Gruber adhesive.[?] Something else I'll have give a turn[8D]