And Two Pens Made Out Of Coal...

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crokett

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Dec 4, 2012
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Mebane, North Carolina
my dad is an amateur blacksmith. I got some of his coal (pea sized lumps) and cast it into some clear resin. I drilled it and then spent several minutes vacuuming up coal dust. Dust control if I turn it will be a problem. Someone here at work just pointed out to me that assuming I do turn it, after the finish wears off, my dad's fingers will turn black. So.... if I were to start over but crush the coal down to dust and cast that, would that work any better?
 
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Do a double cast.

Cast the coal, turn the cast blank to about 0.01" to 0.02" below the finished size (which should be somewhere between finisjed size and tube size) and cast again in clear. When you turn that to finished size you will have a nice thick layer of resin that nobody will ever wear down to the coal.

Ed
 
Or what about a ca finish? I've not worked with coal outside of shoveling it into a stove, recasting will work but if you could do a ca finish, that would be faster. Not sure how the ca will react to the coal though.
 
I will look at the double cast. Now I gotta figure out dust collection. I am thinking of duct-taping my shop vac hose to one of my carbide tools, and throwing an old sheet over the lathe.
 
If you have a box fan, put a furnace filter on the side that pulls air and place the fan behind the lathe. This should pull most of the dust and small particles and trap them in the filter. The heavier particles will fall to the floor or bench. I use this set-up for my scroll saw and it works great at collecting the dust.

As for the finish, I would do a CA finish, but a double cast would also work.
 
I would think grinding the coal to dust and casting would create a more solid blank to work with. Just my 2 cents. PS let me know how that works I am a week end blacksmith also and would be interested to know how it works out for you.
 
Paint a tube a background colour you like. Black perhaps. :rolleyes:
Apply Elmer's Spray Adhesive to the tube and roll it in the coal dust you crushed.
Cast it in resin.

 
I do not know about the CA finish, as you are applying the CA the Coal particles may come off and darken your ca finish making it harder to see the coal. I would go with the double cast.

Dennis
 
I've done crushed hard coal(from my furnace) inlay, then filled with CA. It comes out nice. After sanding, I aleays had to apply several more coats of CA to seal it back up.
 
If the coal was coarsely crushed, it could be used like Inlace as accent lines in a lighter blank. Might look pretty cool with cholla cactus or a nice burl...
 
I have made several coal pens. The crushed coal will more or less just look black. Finish with CA. No black fingers. Dust is a problem, though.
 
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