Finishing a clay blank

[rbruce2u]

Hi all;
Another finnish question? I just received an incredibly beautiful Toni Ransfield blank from Exotics. My question is how to Finnish it. Has anyone done one that could help me out?

Thanks again for all the help;
All the best;

Bob

 

[edstreet]

Well put it on the lathe, do some light sanding, use your caliper and make it the right size. then put a CA coat on it.

 

[doddman70]

Maybe she will chime in but I'm pretty sure I saw Toni say somewhere that she does not have a lathe so she does not put a ca finish on them But i believe she uses a glaze from the craft store, But don't quote me on it LOL

 

[Seer]

She uses a wood floor finish on hers if I remember correctly.

 

[edstreet]

Use to, not anymore, no glaze from the crap store either.

 

[Jim Smith]

I used CA to finish the ones I've done. I figure that if nothing else, it should help prevent oils from the hands and or stains from sinking into the clay which still seems a bit porous to me.

One thing you want to watch for is that if you finish one of these blanks with CA using bushings, there is a real possibility that the clay will chip at the ends of the blank if the CA overlaps onto the bushing. When you try to remove the bushing, the CA hangs onto the clay and can take chips out of the clay. I speak from experience on that I would recommend that you use Delrin plastic tapered bushings on a mandrel which will prevent the bushing from being flush with the clay that you're finishing.

They do make really beautiful pens and they are well worth the effort.

Jim Smith

 

[edstreet]

Polymer clay - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Polymer clay is a sculptable material based on the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It usually contains no clay minerals, and is only called "clay" because its texture and working properties resemble those of mineral clay.

What you are feeling is not porous, it gets sanded out, smoothed over. The CA is mostly used to fill in any void spaces and help gloss things over. I highly suspect you could probably just sand it smooth and buff it for a good finish.

Ed

 

[GoatRider]

Polymer clay - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Polymer clay is a sculptable material based on the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It usually contains no clay minerals, and is only called "clay" because its texture and working properties resemble those of mineral clay.

What you are feeling is not porous, it gets sanded out, smoothed over. The CA is mostly used to fill in any void spaces and help gloss things over. I highly suspect you could probably just sand it smooth and buff it for a good finish.

Ed

I've tried that, it doesn't take a shine from just buffing. I've used floor polish, that helps a lot, but I suspect CA is going to be even better. I haven't tried that yet though.

 

[Toni]

The process I use is to wet sand through all the grits, buff up the tube and apply CA..

No I dont have a lathe, but when I did this is what I did.

Yes I used to use floor polish that was 3 years ago before I discovered CA:biggrin:

Hope that answers your questions.