Jr. George with Black Palm

[KMCloonan]

I read many posts on this site about how difficult Black Palm is to work with - I am not from Missouri, so I don't say "Show Me", but I do like to see for myself.

Well, 1.5 black palm blanks later, I was able to complete the pen below. I just bought a lot of different blanks from Steven Davis (who, by the way, provides outstanding service, and excellent blanks). Included in my purchase were 3 Black Palm blanks. I set off right away to make a Jr. George pen. I cut the blanks to length, drilled them, epoxied in the tubes, etc.

I started turning the barrel blank, and it was going fine, and I started thinking, "this is not so bad". It seemed to turn very nicely. I actually turned the blank down to about 0.010" proud of the bushings with no trouble whatsoever. I decided to take one last gentle stroke of my carbide tool to level the blank with the bushings and WHAM!! The most spectacular blow out I have ever had. The blank literally blew apart. It reminded me of the cartoon cigar that explodes on the guy smoking it.



I went upstairs for dinner and calmed down. I returned to my shop after dinner, cleaned off the tube of the damaged blank, cut a new blank, drilled, glued, etc.

I was extremely cautious the second time around, and I think the final pen turned out well. I will definitely make more pens with Black Palm, I just need to be very careful.




Thanks for letting me decompress!

 

[Alan Morrison]

All's well that ends well.

 

[1080Wayne]

Looks great ! For your next challenge , try one crosscut .

 

[Jim15]

That's a beauty.

 

[KMCloonan]

Looks great ! For your next challenge , try one crosscut .

I had actually planned to swap out the stock finial with one made from the black palm, but that would have required me to either work with end grain (black palm end grain looks extremely vascular/fibrous) or try to turn a small disc of face grain. Given how easy it was to tear out, I abandoned the custom finial. Maybe next time…

 

[sorcerertd]

Black palm does make a nice looking pen if you're careful (obviously). I like the Jr George, too. It's simply stated so the blank stands out. I've turned a couple magic wands from it (1x1x12 stock), which came out pretty nice.

A custom finial might have looked pretty cool with end grain. I might have to try that; maybe practice on a fridge magnet first.

 

[Sataro]

Pen looks great!

 

[Blood Woodson]

The thinner you get them, the more likely they seem to be to explode. I haven't been able to do a full slimline out of one after about four attempts. I've done two Big Ben cigars with 2.5 blanks.

 

[ed4copies]

You might want to try this:

Black Palm Pen Blanks - Stabilized 6"

Black Palm Pen Blanks - Stabilized. Black Palm is actually a grass, related to bamboo. However, this stabilized version is not difficult to turn with sharp HSS tools. Black Palm displays dark-chocolate lines on a dark tan background. Tree growth patterns are conducive to a uniform density and...

www.exoticblanks.com

I made a batch of stabilized black palm and gave a blank to a high school student to turn. He made a great cigar pen from it and said it was "really easy to turn".

FWIW,
Ed

 

[KMCloonan]

You might want to try this:

Black Palm Pen Blanks - Stabilized 6"

Black Palm Pen Blanks - Stabilized. Black Palm is actually a grass, related to bamboo. However, this stabilized version is not difficult to turn with sharp HSS tools. Black Palm displays dark-chocolate lines on a dark tan background. Tree growth patterns are conducive to a uniform density and...

www.exoticblanks.com

I made a batch of stabilized black palm and gave a blank to a high school student to turn. He made a great cigar pen from it and said it was "really easy to turn".

FWIW,
Ed

Thanks Ed - I was wondering if stabilizing would help. I also have some red palm that also looks like it could spell trouble without stabilizing. I'll give that a shot.