Checkerboard Bamboo Cigar

[jthompson1995]

Here's a Cigar pen I made from a blank cut from a cutting board I found at a big box store. It was the perfect size to cut crosswise into pen blank size. It's on a gold TN kit from BTW with a CA finish.

A closer view.

 

[rhahnfl]

That turned out very nice. Did you have any problems with tearout or splintering?

 

[jthompson1995]

Originally posted by rhahnfl
<br />That turned out very nice. Did you have any problems with tearout or splintering?

Thanks and, no, I didn't have any issues with it when I was turning. I was kind of surprised that I didn't. I treated it a lot like an acrylic and turned really fast and used a light scraping cut and it came off in ribbons. I was a little worried the glue joints wouldn't hold, but they didn't give me any problems.

 

[LEAP]

That's the nicest bamboo pen I have seen so far. Excellent job!

 

[louisbry]

Nice looking bamboo pen, Jason. I bought a cutting board for blanks but didn't use it because I didn't thing it would look so good. Thanks to you now I know I was wrong.

 

[R2]

Beautiful pen and workmanship.[][][^] Why do people keep stealing my ideas?[][][}]

 

[Ligget]

That is fantastic, just goes to show you can get material from everywhere for pens![]

 

[alxe24]

Very nice pen/cutting board. Congrats

 

[badger]

I got a couple diagonal striped bamboo cutting boards at teh discount store for exactly this purpose. Nice work.

 

[johncrane]

Yep thats a beauty Jason.[]

 

[Stevej72]

Jason, that pen really turned out nice!

 

[toolcrazy]

Very nice.

 

[Mather323]

Great work, I like the color it go great with the pen kit!

 

[badger]

Originally posted by jthompson1995
Thanks and, no, I didn't have any issues with it when I was turning. I was kind of surprised that I didn't. I treated it a lot like an acrylic and turned really fast and used a light scraping cut and it came off in ribbons. I was a little worried the glue joints wouldn't hold, but they didn't give me any problems.

I've found that bamboo turns quite well, there is a chance of tear out on pieces that thin, but for the most part it turns just like any wood. I've done quite a few peices, and I've seen very little tearout with bamboo. I would however recommend that when gluing the blank to the tubes, you be extra careful about getting good glue coverage.

I've seen splitting of the blank when thin to be more of a problem than tear out. I think this is due to the fact that bamboo is really a grass, rather than a tree, or so I've been told.

--badger

 

[jskeen]

I see you have some of these blanks for sale cut straight. If you have any more you might try cutting them at a 45 degree angle to the glue lines and then gluing them together and drilling down your glue line. I tried it but couldn't whip alignment problems, but you may be smarter than me

 

[Glenn McCullough]

very handsome pen, well done!