African black wood and CA?

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Texatdurango

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Last week I asked for suggestions for a very dark wood and African blackwood was suggested so I ordered some. I turned a pen yesterday and applied a CA finish. It took on a great shine but I noticed that on one end of the blank it appears that the CA finish is lifting from the pen. It appears that the bond has broken between the glue and the wood.

Anyone experience this or has anyone had good success with applying CA finish to the blackwood? It sure has a lot of oil in it!

George
 
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The first African Blackwood pen I made the CA finish turned out fabulous and it was all downhill from there. I now use lacquer.
 
I have done a segmented pen that this has happened to. It is only in a few spots, and in general is where the black ebony is. How do I fix this after the fact? Oh, and I am not able to disassemble it.
 
Maybe if you cleaned the Blackwood surface very well with a solvent like Naphtha or even Methyl Ethyl Keytone - MEK (very toxic stuff) enough of the oils would be removed to allow the CA to bond better. Clean the wood twice and after the second cleaning immediately apply the CA.

Keep us all advised as to your progress and good luck! [:D]
 
If it was me I'd stay away from MEK, Toulene, Xylene . Afer having worked with these for years I can tell they are bad on your liver, I now have liver problems. No finish is worth that.

Jack
 
I had a friend that was having a bear of a time finishing one pen because the CA kept flowing away from the wood in a few spots. To solve the problem I used acetone to remove the CA that was there, resanded using MicroMesh through 12000, hit it with acetone again to remove the oil in the wood, sprayed with CA accelerator then applied CA like normal (maybe a little faster on that first coat). Turned out beautiful. I've now used that same technique on a couple of pens of mine that were proving stubborn and they turned out great too.

Also remember that you should never touch the wood with your bear hands after you have turned it to size. Your body oil will affect the CA finish and not in a good way. I've improved my results tremendously by putting on a nitrile glove just as soon as I finish turning the blank and before I start sanding.

GK


GK
 
emma, unless you can get your pen diassembled, you're kind SOL. unless someone has a very unique way of mounting it in a drill press or in a chuck but the clip and nib end and centerband would all be in the way and cause some issues.

what kind of kit is it? most kits can be taken apart and refinished.
 
Emma,

I had something similar with a 7mm Euro that I had to re-finish. The good thing with it is that I can take the clip out since the finial is screwed in. After that I just carefully protected the metal parts with tape (nib and center band). Mounted it between centers with a dead center on the head stock. Turned it and the customer (my officemate) was so happy, he ordered 2 more pens [;)].
 
Ahoiberg,
The kit is PSI's Power Click pen. If you know how to disassemble it, I would be forever grateful. I have a different pen using the same kit that I have tried taking apart because of a bad click mechanism, and have been unsuccessful. I have posted on the forum to see if anyone knew how to disassemble this kit, but to no avail. The clip isn't even able to be removed, so I can't put it on the lathe that way either. I guess I am like you said, SOL.

Thank you all for all the information you have provided!!
 
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