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 !!
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.