Spalted Maple Calypso

[ldb2000]

This is one of my Calypso pens in Spalted maple and brass . This blank is one of a bunch of spalted maple blanks that I had bought on ebay . The wood is so punky that it was unturnable , even after a good soaking of CA it still turned off in chunks .
Skye posted about the new Reynolds Handi-vac and I thought it might work for stabilizing spalted and soft tearout prone woods . I mentioned it to my wife in passing and the next time she went shopping she brought me home a present . I love that woman !
I filled a large pickle jar with Minwax wood hardener and put in a couple of these maple blanks , then I poked some holes in the lid and put the jar in one of the gallon size bags and used the handi-vac to pull a vacuum in the jar . As I watched the blanks started bubbling and after a couple of hours they had sunk to the bottom . I pulled them out and let them dry for a couple of days and turned this pen . I won't say that it's as good as commercial stabilization but these maple blanks can now be turned without turning to dust and chunks . I finished this pen with thin CA and a coat of Renwax .

As always comments are welcome .

 

[rjwolfe3]

That's awesome. Pretty cool pen. I may have to try that method.

 

[PaulDoug]

Love the pen. Beautiful wood. Is that vac thing you talk about one that is used to vacuum pack food? I think I have one around somewhere!

 

[Skye]

Love the pen. Beautiful wood. Is that vac thing you talk about one that is used to vacuum pack food? I think I have one around somewhere!

Pretty much, you can get it at walmart, plus a couple gallon bags, even includes the batteries for about $8. Too cool that it worked!

Very cool pen. I bet minimizing that seam between the halves was a bear.

 

[igran7]

Again Butch you continue to amaze me with your creativity. Another beautiful Original designed pen. Thanks for sharing the Vacuume bag trick as well, I have quite a few intensily spalted and very punky wood that I may try this on.

 

[Mather323]

Great looking pen!

 

[spiritwoodturner]

Very nice, Butch!

Personally, I'm sold on the Minwax with vacuum thing. I guess if you had 5 blanks to stabilize you might want to send them away, but I have literally hundreds. I just wish Minwax sold the Hardener by the gallon. I called them, and they don't.

You got a very nice pen out of a fairly worthless piece of wood, and that to me is a joy.

Dale

 

[wolftat]

Outstanding job Butch. You are doing some original thinking.

 

[workinforwood]

Love it Butch! It's a perfect match.

 

[papaturner]

Excellent work.....Beautiful pen.

 

[guts]

Butch, that's a great looking pen you got there,love the spalted wood and also use to love to watch Bob Ross.

 

[ldb2000]

Hi everyone
Thanks for all the kind words . I have used the vac on a couple of other blanks with mixed results , on punky spalted woods it works great and softer tear out prone woods it worked pretty good but not so well on hard woods as would be expected . It can't pull deep vacuum but it seems to pull enough vacuum to penetrate a 3/4" curly koa blank to the center without drilling .
I really love spalted woods and that's what I wanted it for . I just bought a bunch of spalted apple and beech from Victor and will be posting some pictures as I stabilize and turn some of it .

Skye , Thank you for the idea to begin with , My wife does most of the shopping so I might have never even known about this thing .
I'm not really happy about the joint between the two barrels and may still make a CB for it . The wood while being much harder is still very soft and I rounded the ends a little too much during final sanding so I think a CB might be the way to go , but the grain matches soooo nice .

Paul , go here to see the Handi-vac http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39664
It cost about $10 I think .

Joe , thanks for the compliment . If the wood is really punky this thing will work wonders .

Dale , the Minwax hardener is good stuff , I would love to get one of the better stabilizers to try with this but the price is out of my ballpark .
You are right about the wood being worthless , I had written this wood off as a loss because it couldn't be turned , it was killing me because several pieces have fantastic spalting in them .

Neil , Thanks buddy , it means allot .

Bill , before I started watching Bob Ross I couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler , he taught me how to paint beautiful landscapes with his shows , but I still can't draw a straight line with a ruler :biggrin:

 

[Dalecamino]

Butch , very nice work ! Thanks for sharing the info .

 

[NewLondon88]

That looks great!
I just picked up the hardener and I've got a few of the Handi Vacs around..
and Alton gave me some pieces of Buckeye burl that are falling apart, so
this could be the weekend project.. :biggrin:

 

[ldb2000]

I used a 1qt pickle jar and punched 5 holes in the lid then placed the jar in a 1 gallon size bag with the vac port on the top of the jar . You might have to try several bags till you find one that holds the vacuum for several hours . I check the bag every hour and use the vac as needed . When you stop getting bubbling from the wood you are done . Wood that has a little density will take longer and might benefit from pre drilling the blanks first , the koa I tried took about 6 hours and then I let it sit over night in the jar and had full penetration with out drilling .
Good luck and let us know if you find any tricks .

 

[bitshird]

Nice work Butch, There is a lady that sells damaged cans of paint and stains at a local flea market, sells the minwax hardener for 4.00 a can, I think they are pints, guess where I'm going next Saturday already have a 5.6 CF Vacuum pump.:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[toolcrazy]

Very cool.

 

[workinforwood]

Nice..another beauty of a pen!

 

[scrollsawwoodart]

Wood hardener

When you put the wood hardener in the pickle jar can it just be stored in the jar for use later on or do you have to get rid of it and use new harder? I know some of it will be gone due to penetration so refilling would be necessary that way.

Also what size holes do you put in the lid? Would a 1/4 inch hole be to big?

Thanks
Jesse

 

[KenV]

Butch -- great outcome.

The light vacuum using the hand pump is probably just about the most effective approach. Most think they are pulling air out of the wood, and are instead actually using the vacuum pump to boil off (fractional distillation of the lowest boiling point solvents) the solvents used to make the solids in the hardner more mobile.

If the edges of the joint are still a bit soft, that may be a wear point over time, and a more durable band may make the pen more durable in use. You do have a great grain match!!!

 

[ldb2000]

Any sized holes will work , I just used a punch to make the holes , I think they are about 3/16" . Yes I use the same jar to store the Minwax , I just put a new lid on to prevent evaporation . The Minwax can be used over and over until it used up . Ken is right about loosing the solvents and I found that after about 6 or 7 uses it started to get too thick to fully penetrate the wood , but that was after over 20 blanks .
Ken , this wood was very , very punky , so soft that it turned to powder when turning before using the hardener . The joint was softer then regular non spalted wood but still harder then it was before the hardener . I never made the centerband and the joint is holding up great , no wear after a year of use .