Dichloram material...using strips, as with abalone?

[jrista]

I've run across this material a couple times, mainly with knives as scales:

https://www.makermaterialsupply.com/collections/dichrolam-burl-textures

Its pretty amazing stuff though, however apparently its just a thin sheet of material. I'm curious of anyone has ever used this on a pen? Can it be rolled tightly enough to be glued to a tube? If not, can it be cut into strips like we would with abalone sheets, and glued to a tube?

Its fairly expensive stuff...just curious if anyone has tried it, before I buy.

 

[KenB259]

John Underhill sells them at Exotic Blanks.

 

[jttheclockman]

I have been gathering a bunch of materials and items for some cool looking blanks I am working on and one of the companies I am buying coatings from is Vvivid vinyls and they basically make coatings for cars. I am trying a number of their coatings. But one I picked up just last week looks something like that in a way. But they have many more cool looking vinyls that I think would look good on pens. Just another source for odd stuff.

https://vvividshop.com/

 

[jrista]

I have been gathering a bunch of materials and items for some cool looking blanks I am working on and one of the companies I am buying coatings from is Vvivid vinyls and they basically make coatings for cars. I am trying a number of their coatings. But one I picked up just last week looks something like that in a way. But they have many more cool looking vinyls that I think would look good on pens. Just another source for odd stuff.

https://vvividshop.com/

Thanks!! Love these kinds of materials. The honecomb stuff looks pretty nice!

 

[jrista]

John Underhill sells them at Exotic Blanks.

I know he has sold abalone ones... Has he sold dichrolam blanks before?

 

[jttheclockman]

I've run across this material a couple times, mainly with knives as scales:

https://www.makermaterialsupply.com/collections/dichrolam-burl-textures

Its pretty amazing stuff though, however apparently its just a thin sheet of material. I'm curious of anyone has ever used this on a pen? Can it be rolled tightly enough to be glued to a tube? If not, can it be cut into strips like we would with abalone sheets, and glued to a tube?

Its fairly expensive stuff...just curious if anyone has tried it, before I buy.

Man that stuff is expensive. That would have to be a special pen with a top$$ price. Some real nice stuff.

 

[jttheclockman]

I know he has sold abalone ones... Has he sold dichrolam blanks before?

Yes he has the OpalFX material as well. Look under guest blanks and he has a few there so yes to your question it is flexible enough to wrap a tube. Now it looks like 10mm is the smallest tube size he uses. So many different products to wrap tubes with out there these days.

 

[jrista]

Man that stuff is expensive. That would have to be a special pen with a top$$ price. Some real nice stuff.

Yes he has the OpalFX material as well. Look under guest blanks and he has a few there so yes to your question it is flexible enough to wrap a tube. Now it looks like 10mm is the smallest tube size he uses. So many different products to wrap tubes with out there these days.

Yeah, its very expensive... I think you get around a 6x6 inch sheet of it for $13+ each. I figure, though, one such sheet, should actually make a decent number of pens. Only concern I have is upon wrapping, you would have a seam....not sure how to deal with that yet... Maybe split it in half, or even quarters, or just do like you do with abalone and go with strips.

 

[KenB259]

I know he has sold abalone ones... Has he sold dichrolam blanks before?

Yes

 

[jttheclockman]

Yeah, its very expensive... I think you get around a 6x6 inch sheet of it for $13+ each. I figure, though, one such sheet, should actually make a decent number of pens. Only concern I have is upon wrapping, you would have a seam....not sure how to deal with that yet... Maybe split it in half, or even quarters, or just do like you do with abalone and go with strips.

Any material you wrap tube with, unless it is a sleeve type, will have a seam. John's blanks has seams just that people never show the seam. 6X6 gets you 4 pen blanks or 2 double blank. A sierra takes about 1-1/2" if you are careful. So you could get 6 blanks for sierra.

 

[JohnU]

I use it every so often. It's not hard to use, just time consuming and hard to hide the seam. I always do my best to make the seam invisible. It's expensive… about $125. a square foot. I mostly use it on Jrs and larger because it needs to be a higher end pen to justify the price. I've used it on Sierra snd squire tubes. I never had the need to use it on anything smaller than 3/8" dia. Can be tricky to cast. Unfortunately they don't all turn out, but that's casting.

The second picture is the seam.

 

[jttheclockman]

I use it every so often. It's not hard to use, just time consuming and hard to hide the seam. I always do my best to make the seam invisible. It's expensive… about $125. a square foot. I mostly use it on Jrs and larger because it needs to be a higher end pen to justify the price. I've used it on Sierra snd squire tubes. I never had the need to use it on anything smaller than 3/8" dia. Can be tricky to cast. Unfortunately they don't all turn out, but that's casting.

Great explanation John and that is a material that needs to shown alone without watch parts and things hiding the beauty. Like your last line and it is so true!!

 

[ed4copies]

I always say, "IF JohnU can do it, anyone can do it--after a decade of trying and a few hundred failures!"

Good luck!!!

 

[JohnU]

Ha ha, thanks Ed! I do spend a lot of time on blanks (on average 40-60 hours a week) with plenty of failures under my belt. Lol

 

[jttheclockman]

Ha ha, thanks Ed! I do spend a lot of time on blanks (on average 40-60 hours a week) with plenty of failures under my belt. Lol

Anybody that does casting of any kind has had failures and do not let them tell you otherwise. I learned a ton from CaptainG here.

 

[jrista]

I use it every so often. It's not hard to use, just time consuming and hard to hide the seam. I always do my best to make the seam invisible. It's expensive… about $125. a square foot. I mostly use it on Jrs and larger because it needs to be a higher end pen to justify the price. I've used it on Sierra snd squire tubes. I never had the need to use it on anything smaller than 3/8" dia. Can be tricky to cast. Unfortunately they don't all turn out, but that's casting.

The second picture is the seam.

I think I'll start with your blanks, John. Considering the amount of waste I'd likely need to learn how to wrap these properly without a seam...the price of your blanks doesn't seem all that high!

 

[DrDichro]

FYI - I supply the Dichrolam with a peel-n-stick adhesive on the back which makes it pretty easy to wrap over a core tube of any diameter. You cut a pc that is slightly longer than the circumference, then over-wrap a little. Then you cut the new seam with razor and straightedge through both layers. Then slightly peel back the overlayer, pick out the trimmed waste, then stick for perfect seam. The visual "busyness" of the dichrolam hides the seam, then the resin hides it more. Masking protects it all from fingerprints, but if dirty, then alcohol cleans it easily.

Casting isn't too hard either - bend a pc of PET clear film into U channel, seal around tube end with silicone or hot melt, then pour epoxy or Alumilite. Brush bubbles off surface while liquid. Cut cured resin into octagonal cross section, then turn.
This system works on long tubes to cut down into multiple pen blanks.

Oh, and BTW - don't think of price per sq ft, but rather per sq inch. Only a few bucks worth per pen, for something more visually stunning than boulder Opal which is over $10,000.00 per sq ft, because Dichrolam is optically identical to Opal.

 

[jttheclockman]

FYI - I supply the Dichrolam with a peel-n-stick adhesive on the back which makes it pretty easy to wrap over a core tube of any diameter. You cut a pc that is slightly longer than the circumference, then over-wrap a little. Then you cut the new seam with razor and straightedge through both layers. Then slightly peel back the overlayer, pick out the trimmed waste, then stick for perfect seam. The visual "busyness" of the dichrolam hides the seam, then the resin hides it more. Masking protects it all from fingerprints, but if dirty, then alcohol cleans it easily.

Casting isn't too hard either - bend a pc of PET clear film into U channel, seal around tube end with silicone or hot melt, then pour epoxy or Alumilite. Brush bubbles off surface while liquid. Cut cured resin into octagonal cross section, then turn.
This system works on long tubes to cut down into multiple pen blanks.

Oh, and BTW - don't think of price per sq ft, but rather per sq inch. Only a few bucks worth per pen, for something more visually stunning than boulder Opal which is over $10,000.00 per sq ft, because Dichrolam is optically identical to Opal.

That is how I wrap all my materials I use. I use that overlap and cut method. Works good.

 

[mark james]

I just thought I would add an additional link to this discussion: https://www.dichrolam.com/index.html

I have never used the material, no relationship to the company, but just noticed he (John Blazy) was in my neck of the woods and poked around. So just a further assurance that this material is legit.

 

[DrDichro]

I just thought I would add an additional link to this discussion: https://www.dichrolam.com/index.html

I have never used the material, no relationship to the company, but just noticed he (John Blazy) was in my neck of the woods and poked around. So just a further assurance that this material is legit.

Thanks Mark! If you're ever up in Cleveland, stop in to visit my shop off W130th