Birds eye maple

[Displaced Canadian]

Had this piece that had some slight voids and darker coloring in it and smelled a little like spalted wood. turned it and finished with CA. I'm starting to think that I prefer med. CA to thick CA for finishing because it dries a little faster. All comments and insults welcome. :biggrin:

 

[Padre]

I love turning BE maple, and this pen is an excellent example of why! Great pen. Did you just use ca to darken it up?

 

[Displaced Canadian]

The blank quite dark before I started to turn it. I just did a regular just CA finish. 6 coats them MM and 4 more then MM. There were a lot of small voids to fill.

 

[Mark]

I love the wood. Nicely Done.

I use med. for finishing. Even without accel. it still goes pretty quick.

 

[David Keller]

Nice looking pen... tons of eyes in that blank.

 

[maxman400]

Very Nice.

 

[Craftdiggity]

Nice. Birdseye is beautiful.

Chris

 

[Bree]

That turned out great. The eyes are just the right size. Great job.
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[broitblat]

Eye like that.

Beautiful wood and you did a great job turning it into a beautiful pen.

-Barry

 

[Midi]

Can anyone tell me how to darken BE maple. I have some, but it is pretty bland.

Thanks, Midi

 

[Dan26]

Great looking pen!

 

[bitshird]

Nice pen, a real pretty piece of birds eye maple, I agree about the Med vs thick CA. I seal with a few coats of thin then start laying on the medium, your finish looks great.

 

[Displaced Canadian]

The CA finish does darken it a little, this piece was a dark to medium brown before I started. I'm not sure but ebonizing might work.

 

[Midi]

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[boxerman]

A very nice pen. Looks almost like a pine cone blank with all the eyes.

 

[Hucifer]

Very nice. I have a log of BEM I have been carting around with be for 30 yrs or so. My Dad got it for me from central New Brunswick, and I promised I would make something out of it... still haven't gotten around to it. One of these days I'll start cutting blanks out of it...

 

[el_d]

Can anyone tell me how to darken BE maple. I have some, but it is pretty bland.

Thanks, Midi

Use some BLO, It darkens it a bit and help showcase the chatoyance. You can also put a smalll amount of stain in the BLO. The wood wisperer had a videopodcast on how to make Maple POP and had a recipe for the mix.

Very nice BEM, I do like that wood......you did a great job on that pen.

 

[SkookumPens]

Chris, it looks very good. The last time I turned Bird's Eye Maple, I ended up turning off most of the eyes.

 

[islandturner]

Use some BLO, It darkens it a bit and help showcase the chatoyance.

Well you learn something new every day.

I had to google that, and it certainly does apply to some highly figured burl woods. I had a piece of amboyna burl that almost seemed holographic -- like you could see into the wood and the patterns changed, as you turned it in your fingers. I now know that was 'chatoyance'...!

To the OP, that is a outstanding pen.

Thanks
Steve