A cautionary tale

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Randy Simmons

Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2012
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395
Location
Cary, NC
I have been expanding my horizons lately, and I have started to work with a bunch of new exotic woods. I was at my local woodcraft store, and they had a few 3/4 square sticks of this stuff called snakewood. I didn't really know anything about it, but it looked amazing, and I had a bit of extra money, so i bought 12 inches of it, which set me back about 30 bucks.

I started turning a piece, and decided I would keep it for myself, I loved the wood so much. I finished it off with a walnut oil and friction polish, which I favor just for myself because I like the natural feel of it.

I awoke sometime the next week to discover a huge crack in the pen, straight along the grain. Upon doing some research, I discovered that the wood needs to be sealed to prevent it from drying.

In short, snake wood pens need to be finished with CA glue to prevent you from losing a beautiful (and expensive) bit of wood.

You can see the CA finished ones here. I will upload a picture to the gallery on this website, in case the ones on my site have been sold.
 
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Unfortunately a CA finish will not prevent cracking. Sometimes nature will do what nature does and there isn't anything you can do about it. Some woods are just more prone to cracking.
 
Even pens finished with CA will crack. A lot of people say it's not a question of will snakewood crack, but more like when will it crack. And the answer is usually when you have a serious buyer looking at it and finding the crack.
 
ghostrider said:
With woods that are prone to cracking (like snakewood) I usually drill the hole, then check it in a week or so to see if it's shrunk. Then, I'll re-drill the hole back out, and repeat the process until it stops shrinking.
Click to expand...

interesting point. I will try this with the last piece of it I have. good idea!
 
Monty said:
Even pens finished with CA will crack. A lot of people say it's not a question of will snakewood crack, but more like when will it crack. And the answer is usually when you have a serious buyer looking at it and finding the crack.
Click to expand...

As they say Monty - There are 2 types of snakewood, the one that is cracked, and the other that is going to crack!!
 
Randy, there have been dozens of threads about snakewood, ebony, pink ivory as well as other natural products like antler and water buffalo.

I know of one penmaker who did "tame" snakewood. It took him nearly six months to make a pen, but it rarely cracked.

If you really want to use some of these woods, the information is here to make it possible. Welcome, feel free to make use of the resources---you will learn much.

I have.
 
Definitely add pink ivory to that list. Had one crack in me during a show of all places. I better there than after someone bought it.

I like ghostrider's suggestion above. Definitely have to look into that method.
 
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