Cork Pen

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stonepecker

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Oct 29, 2012
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It took 4 blanks to make it but I did it. Two of them blew out while turning.
After turning, a little spray lacquer and a little paste wax.
Feels great and writes nice.
C&C welcomed

Pictures were taken by a Kodak digital camera in sunlight. This is pratice for the upcomming bash.
 

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Cool stuff Wayne !!:biggrin: I hope you had the pleasure of the wine..:smile:
Are the finished blanks still spongy or are they hard from the finish?
 
Thanks Skip. You can not use CA as a finish on them, they get hard and fall apart. I put on 6 light spray coats and sanded inbetween the last two with 1500. Then the paste wax gave it the shine I wanted. The blanks still feel soft to me.

Michael, I don't think you can go to thin with this material. It really falls apart if it gets to thin. But this isn't a "fatline" as I understand them.

Maybe the next pen I will have the wine the night before.......lol
 
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Nice work, Wayne! Reminds me that I still want to try making a couple pens for my wife out of corks from one of the wineries we visited on our honeymoon...
 
Thanks for the post. A few months ago I saw some corks in a restaurant and thought they'd make a nice pen so I brought a few home. The restaurant owner wants to see one when I'm done- maybe he'll buy one. I have been stalling on the turn because I wasn't sure how to finish it.
Also I was afraid the tool might tear the cork apart so I thought I would just take it down to size with sand paper. What was your experience?
Thanks for the info !!
 
What a cool idea. I was wondering if the corks could be stabilized with Cactus Juice, and if that would make them more stable to turn? I am a tea totaler, so I'll have to get some corks from a restaurant and give this a try. I have turned stabilized corn cob and that went well.
 
Wayne,

Nice pen and nice finish. I have a number of new fishing rod handle blanks that would make nice pens, especially for longer barrel or larger diameter pens. Send me a PM if you'd like to try a few out and I'll get them in the mail to you.

By the way, when I'm turning cork for rod handles, I use either a fine-toothed Surform "rasp" or a regular metal rasp with fine teeth, finally working down to a regular file before the sandpaper. Any of my lathe tools will grab and tear out the cork before you can blink an eye. Very dusty stuff to work with and you really want to use some sort of respirator or filter.

Jim Smith
 
Very nice looking pen! Looks like that cork would tear to pieces on you. Bet that took a little patience to get it finished.
 
turningbranch said:
Thanks for the post. A few months ago I saw some corks in a restaurant and thought they'd make a nice pen so I brought a few home. The restaurant owner wants to see one when I'm done- maybe he'll buy one. I have been stalling on the turn because I wasn't sure how to finish it.
Also I was afraid the tool might tear the cork apart so I thought I would just take it down to size with sand paper. What was your experience?
Thanks for the info !!
Click to expand...



I used a sharp gouge to make it round. VERY VERY LIGHT CUTS. I brought it down to round and then a little smaller. The very first blank I tried to turn it down to far....... took out the end down to the tube.
Once I was round I started with 220 grit to just remove more of the cork. I got to rough with that and again removed some material down to the tube.

Once I did get everything again to round I started sanding VERY LIGHTLY.
stopping many times to check what was happening and checking my fit.
I went from 220.....320......400.......600......1500. Then I sprayed the lacquer on and allowed to dry. Then another light coat.......four coats then just touched it with the 1500 to smooth it before another coat. again sanded and a final coat. Allowed to dry 30 minutes.
Once that happened I took paste wax and set the lathe to high, just coated and polished it on.

Being that it was NOT stablized........this fell apart very easily if you got to rough with it. Also, I believe that stablizing the cork would make the blanks very hard and that wasn't the feeling I was going for. This still 'feels' like cork to me.
 
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Sanding cork

I saw this thread and decided to look at it. I built custom fishing rods and used a bunch of cork rings from several suppliers. To avoid tearing the cork, use fine drywall screen but take your time. It will take cork down to nothing in seconds. Then turn with up to 400 or 600 sandpaper. Keep in mind there are different grades of rings used for rod grips.
 
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