Ebony - Cracked

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Jgrden

Jgrden

Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
6,287
Location
hOUSTON, Texas
I was repricing my pen inventory for a show tomorrow and noticed two of my Ebony pens had CRACKED. One was two days old and the other, six months.

What is this all about???? If I sell an Ebony, do I need to be concerned that someone will bring it back with a crack in it???? I finished two pens in one day, one is cracked and the other is not??? Both finished identically and both woods from the same source, same box. same everything.
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Jgrden said:
I

If I sell an Ebony, do I need to be concerned that someone will bring it back with a crack in it????
Click to expand...

Yes.

I wish there was a different answer, but ebony is known for this. I got a
nice piece yesterday from a flooring company. This was their premium
stuff.. dried, aged, finished etc. I got a piece of the same thing last year
and of the three pens I made, one cracked right away, one about a month
ago and the third didn't crack. (yet)

Do everything you can to make sure it is dry, drill slowly enough to keep
it cool. If it takes all day to drill a blank, so be it. Don't heat it. Be
careful sanding. Stop often, check for heat, walk away for hours if you
need to. Since it is so dense, it will hold heat for a long time.

These things can help.. but ask anyone who does kiln drying or milling
how their yield is on ebony .. you'll get horror stories.
 
Should you be concerned that ebony will crack? Yes. Ebony is one of those woods that is quite prone to cracking. Personally, I don't consider black ebony (whatever the real name is...gaboon ebony maybe) to be one of the best woods for pens because of the cracking. We have too many other choices of beautiful woods from which to choose. I will make an ebony pen if requested but the new owner is warned about the cracking issue.

Maybe the crack can be repaired the same way some of us repair snakewood cracks. I should make an ebony pen, let it crack and repair the crack and see how well it works.

Good luck.
Do a good turn daily!
Don




Jgrden said:
I was repricing my pen inventory for a show tomorrow and noticed two of my Ebony pens had CRACKED. One was two days old and the other, six months.

What is this all about???? If I sell an Ebony, do I need to be concerned that someone will bring it back with a crack in it???? I finished two pens in one day, one is cracked and the other is not??? Both finished identically and both woods from the same source, same box. same everything.
Click to expand...
 
Well I'll be darned.It must have been the heat. I finished with BLO/CA and it got pretty hot.

Thank you for the input. I learned a big lesson.
 
Yeah, some people have said that if you want a black wood pen, use African Blackwood. I would, but I have a bunch of ebony I bought for cheap. Even so, I don't use it much at all. Too many issues.
 
HEATregardless of the source will almost always cause Ebony to develop crack(s) as has been the experience of many turners.

Even after making a successful finished product, if one were to leave the pen in a hot place - car?? - many will develop a crack.
 
HEATregardless of the source will almost always cause Ebony to develop crack(s) as has been the experience of many turners.

Even after making a successful finished product, if one were to leave the pen in a hot place - car?? - many will develop a crack.
 
HEATregardless of the source will almost always cause Ebony to develop crack(s) as has been the experience of many turners.

Even after making a successful finished product, if one were to leave the pen in a hot place - car?? - many will develop a crack. :mad-tongue:
 
Hello,
You could take it apart and resand buidling up a "slurry" and fill in the cracks. The pen will then have "expansion joints" to help avoid it happening again...
 
Only crack when you sell them...

Don,
Guaranteed that it will not crack if you want to make a "repair" pen. LOL

Soren Berger was at our Woodturners Symposium a few years back. As he was turning a lampshade out of Alaska Birch, it was real thin and it was in pieces! He said " It's only wood"...

I can't believe how much time I've spent doing "oops bands" and filling cracks... Sure teachs you to be creative... LOL
 
Although heat may play a role in cracking, personally I think it has more to do with the stress on the wood when the fittings are pressed in the tube and the brass expands. There are many other applications of ebony such as musical instrument fingerboards with not nearly the number of reported cracks. The difference is the amount of stress on the wood. I have made crack free pens from ebony, ivory, snakewood and other crack prone materials using the following steps:

1) Drill slowly with minimal heating of blank.
2) Let the wood stabilize after drilling before gluing in a tube. The drilled hole will actually shrink. Redrill or file hole and let it sit. Repeat this until the hole size is stable. For snakewood, this may take a week or more. Don't be in a hurry.
3) Do not press in the fittings into the tubes. Sand/file them until there is a slip fit. Glue them in.
 
I don't know why it cracks but it does. some wood is just that way. I have a couple of materials I will no longer use for just this reason.
Ebony, I use African Blackwood as a replacement.
Water Buffalo Horn. may crack right away or even years later but it is going to crack.
Snakewood
Why fight with what does not want to work.
 
Hank, I read it, recorded it and am going to try it. No more Ebony for me. I think there is a So. AFrican Wood, Zangara that looks much better. I am going to try Ebonizing. That Maple looked absolutely black. Thanks for following up on my quandry.
 
I would also suggest experimenting for a few days just to learn the procedure well and not get discouraged. I say that from my personal experience. The small bowl that I made had a few light spots on a couple of knots (not much but some) and I had to wipe them a couple of more times and wait until it dried.

You can't do this with square blanks but rather blanks turned to the finished size. The ebonizing only goes micrometer deep, but it offers a unique solution and coloring.

AS a second and faster alternative: Turn to size, fine sand and then use permanent magic markers to dye the wood. This used to be a common method for making different colored pens until pressure treated and colored blanks became commercially available. I did one with black and was not quite happy with the color so I added a layer of brown color over the black which gave it a richer black look. Good luck with experimenting.
 
Last edited:
John,

I missed something above - or rather left something out - on the ebonizing of the bowl, I did pressurize it in the vinegar/steel wool solution back in the summer. I just forgot about that. When posting that about the ebonizing, I remembered that it was more than surface only but not by much. Then a few minutes ago, I remembered that I pressurized it which allowed me to micromesh lightly after ebonizing it without the loss of the black color. It did come out a good color. LOML loves it. It was a small bowl just about 2 3/4 inches in diameter.
 
that bowl sounds pretty neat. I have never turned a bowl. Another adventure better left alone. I have my hands full with pens.
 
I have done well for black with use of black leather dye - very very light fast (does not fade in sunlight) - Be sure to wear gloves or you will have to wait for the skin to wear away to get rid of the colors -- and you need not ask how I can share that tip.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom