MDVolle
Member
So the last 8 weeks "hobby time" has been focused on using wood actually found in the yard - downed branches and trimmings - "Found On Ground" as one turner called it.
Which leads to some challenges in finding enough good enough wood to make a blank from - especially with bug damaged branches and limbs.
The first challenge was just cutting up a bunch of pieces and seeing what was inside - I made 5-7" pieces with the chainsaw and then split them open on the bandsaw. Our yard is 2 1/2 acres of mostly Coastal Oak with some Manzanita - The oldest Oak is between 150-200 years old but most are much younger.
A downed branch from the old oak yielded several pieces like this one on the bandsaw -
While there might not be a single piece that's completely undamaged, I decided to see if I would work with the damage and just make a pen anyway.
There were, of course, more than one failed experiment and pieces that just flew off the tube after starting to turn, but I found a balance of how much had to be solid to still be turnable.
The next challenge was what to do with all the voids - some bug trails are packed tight with the chewed up wood and if solid, it actually turns and finishes but many sections come flying out as you turn into the bug trails -
Some experimenting resulted in finding that I could fill the voids with ground turquoise and thin, penetrating CA - but working in thin layers was essential to saturating the entire fill with glue (turn through the glue saturated part and the loose powder would come flying out at me) so it also meant trying to get close to size before doing too much filling. Powdered Copper also works but just doesn't go well with many of the pen kits.
One problem was that if I just sanded and then finished the pen, like solid wood, the turquoise was dull and lifeless - so it has to be polished before finishing -
Queue up several more failed experiments - trying to polish the CA/Turquoise resulted in getting the wood parts "dirty" and filling in some of the grain with powder, polishing compound or even stains from the polishing touching the metal bushings at the ends - but the stone part looked great...
The end game was to combine finishing and final sanding into a hybrid sequence - I actually sand the pen to about 2000 and then take it off the bushings and put it between finishing non-stick cones. These don't lend any metal or color to the polishing -
Next, I actually coat the whole blank with a thin layer of the penetrating CA and then sand again - through the top of the CA to the stone chips and the top of the wood, but the pores and grain are now filled and don't gather debris from the polishing -the whole pen gets polished/burnished - the wood to a near shine but the stone to a glossy finish - Then I can finally start the actual finish layers of CA - and once sanded and polished, the stone underneath now looks shiny and polished as well - Preceding pens definitely omitted from the photos... some were downright ugly -
I am far from mastering the technique but its improving and all of this years Christmas Pens are from the yard - There are 16 total but some got wrapped before the photo...
Which leads to some challenges in finding enough good enough wood to make a blank from - especially with bug damaged branches and limbs.
The first challenge was just cutting up a bunch of pieces and seeing what was inside - I made 5-7" pieces with the chainsaw and then split them open on the bandsaw. Our yard is 2 1/2 acres of mostly Coastal Oak with some Manzanita - The oldest Oak is between 150-200 years old but most are much younger.
A downed branch from the old oak yielded several pieces like this one on the bandsaw -
While there might not be a single piece that's completely undamaged, I decided to see if I would work with the damage and just make a pen anyway.
There were, of course, more than one failed experiment and pieces that just flew off the tube after starting to turn, but I found a balance of how much had to be solid to still be turnable.
The next challenge was what to do with all the voids - some bug trails are packed tight with the chewed up wood and if solid, it actually turns and finishes but many sections come flying out as you turn into the bug trails -
Some experimenting resulted in finding that I could fill the voids with ground turquoise and thin, penetrating CA - but working in thin layers was essential to saturating the entire fill with glue (turn through the glue saturated part and the loose powder would come flying out at me) so it also meant trying to get close to size before doing too much filling. Powdered Copper also works but just doesn't go well with many of the pen kits.
One problem was that if I just sanded and then finished the pen, like solid wood, the turquoise was dull and lifeless - so it has to be polished before finishing -
Queue up several more failed experiments - trying to polish the CA/Turquoise resulted in getting the wood parts "dirty" and filling in some of the grain with powder, polishing compound or even stains from the polishing touching the metal bushings at the ends - but the stone part looked great...
The end game was to combine finishing and final sanding into a hybrid sequence - I actually sand the pen to about 2000 and then take it off the bushings and put it between finishing non-stick cones. These don't lend any metal or color to the polishing -
Next, I actually coat the whole blank with a thin layer of the penetrating CA and then sand again - through the top of the CA to the stone chips and the top of the wood, but the pores and grain are now filled and don't gather debris from the polishing -the whole pen gets polished/burnished - the wood to a near shine but the stone to a glossy finish - Then I can finally start the actual finish layers of CA - and once sanded and polished, the stone underneath now looks shiny and polished as well - Preceding pens definitely omitted from the photos... some were downright ugly -
I am far from mastering the technique but its improving and all of this years Christmas Pens are from the yard - There are 16 total but some got wrapped before the photo...
