Dominic Greco
Member
I've been working on some CSUSA European pens and have been having a small problem.
Mostly it's been with hard, dense woods like Bloodwood, Brown Mallee, Cocobolo, and hard brittle woods like Beech, Zebrawood, and Zicote. They're all so hard that they then to crack pretty easily. I find this happens with stabilized, as well as natural wood blanks.[?]
After roughing the blank to a cylinder, I use a freshly sharpened skew chisel and take peeling cuts. I can get an ultra smooth surface and this helps to cut down on the sanding time. However, when I get close to the nib, I seem to always chip out a bit near the end. Not all the time. But when it happens, it's just enough to be noticed and cause me to want to scream!
I normally rough the blank round, then taper the ends towards each bushing so that I don't blow out the blank (sort of make a saugsage shape). But as I sneak up on that final shape, I get a small chip out, or something similar. Am I being to heavy handed with the skew?
Anybody experience this? Any tips on avoiding this chipping out?
One thought was that this be a case where being too heavy handed with a barrel trimmer has caused stress fractures in the end. But this seems to only happen at the nib and not the other end of the blanks. Any ideas about that?
Thanks in advance.
Mostly it's been with hard, dense woods like Bloodwood, Brown Mallee, Cocobolo, and hard brittle woods like Beech, Zebrawood, and Zicote. They're all so hard that they then to crack pretty easily. I find this happens with stabilized, as well as natural wood blanks.[?]
After roughing the blank to a cylinder, I use a freshly sharpened skew chisel and take peeling cuts. I can get an ultra smooth surface and this helps to cut down on the sanding time. However, when I get close to the nib, I seem to always chip out a bit near the end. Not all the time. But when it happens, it's just enough to be noticed and cause me to want to scream!
I normally rough the blank round, then taper the ends towards each bushing so that I don't blow out the blank (sort of make a saugsage shape). But as I sneak up on that final shape, I get a small chip out, or something similar. Am I being to heavy handed with the skew?
Anybody experience this? Any tips on avoiding this chipping out?
One thought was that this be a case where being too heavy handed with a barrel trimmer has caused stress fractures in the end. But this seems to only happen at the nib and not the other end of the blanks. Any ideas about that?
Thanks in advance.