Let me start by saying I use a lot of CA glue. So much, that I buy directly from the manufacturer and I buy accelerator by the gallon. I've been doing that for years. Up until a month ago, I was willing to blame this problem on a particular brand or lot of glue or accelerator, or handling, or storage.
Then it happened to me. Of all the pens I've finished with CA glue,
one exhibits this problem. I made the pen about six months prior, so the finish was well cured. I don't use stickfast brand CA. I stored it indoors in a pen binder out of the sun, so it was never dropped, nor exposed to temperature extremes. The woods were well seasoned and acclimated to local humidity.
I can only come up with two possible explanations:
- The pen is made of hard maple and african blackwood. It could be that the woods expanded at different rates, fracturing the finish. Cracks around the blackwood inlays tend to support this hypothesis. Cracks over the rest of the pen do not.
- The problem occurred in early spring, just as the weather was changing. There were 20 degree (Fahrenheit) temperature swings during the day. It's possible that the pen barrel expanded and contracted more than the finish could. That might cause this sort of cracking. Other pens, made from the same woods and similarly stored, however, are just fine.
I'm not sure why it happened, but I am concerned about CA finishes now.
Regards,
Eric