Lignum Vitae?

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

hanau

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2007
Messages
1,394
Location
thomasville, nc, USA.
Is there anything special or concerns i should know about this wood?

talking to someone and they want a pen turned out of this wood, they are going to provide the material for it.
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
If you drop it in a swimmin' pool, you'll find it on the bottom, cause it doesn't float. Seriously, its pretty hard, dense, oily, a little tough. Requires sharp tools, and will dull them fairly easily. That said, its a really nice wood to work, takes a polish readily, and isn't really finicky to work with. You'll have no problem working with it. Just remember it really is a dense wood--its used quite a bit for bearings, especially on ships, due to its oil content which keeps any water damage from occurring. In fact, I'm using lignum vitae for guide blocks on my band saw, and its much better than the ones that came with the saw!
 
LV is in my top ten woods to turn. Not the purdiest thing out there but it is a pleasure to use. It is hard though.


Tips: lube your drill bit with mineral oil while drilling, avoid heat. It can crack.


For finishing LV: micromesh the fool out of it. All the way to 12,000. Then take a stick of carnauba wax and burn on a coat onto the wood (a thin coat, one pass). You will see it melt a tad as it begins to melt. Once you do this "burn on" you can take a cloth with the lathe on and buff off the excess wax (basically like a friction polish).


Please don't put a CA or lacquer finish on LV. It's just to nice of a wood to miss out on using a "bare" wood.
 
LV is some great stuff, some experts say it is the hardest, most dense wood on the planet{do a google}. I just made myself a new carry pen, a LV polaris and i love it. I too would just micro mesh and wax. This wood is so hard and oily i don't believe anything else would stick anyway. I show people my LV pen and they can't believe its unfinished wood
 
I was told, though I have NOT independently confirmed, that the oils can cause respiratory problems if you're exposed to significant amounts of it. I love the smell of LV, but I play it safe and wear a respirator, especially when sanding (which is becoming my habit with just about any wood).

As for a finish, I'm with the guys...there's enough oil in that wood that you don't really need anything more than a nice MM run-through and some wax.
 
I'm with everyone else--I wouldn't think of using CA on it. I've used Myland's friction polish with good success, but as redfishsc mentioned, if you use carnauba wax, you don't need it. And they're right--it takes a super gloss all its own, and IS oily!
 
Speaking of this, does anyone have some blanks of this? I will be needing some for guide blocks on my big W/T band saw soon, heck.. I might just need a new fountian pen in this..

Drop me a PM if you have some to sell or maybe trade.
 
I love this stuff! And I've turned a fair amount of pens from it. I love turning it. Yes it's dense and hard, but I find it turns like a dream. Don't use a finish on it. Just take it out with all the MM grits and put a coat of Ren Wax on it. Leave it in the sun for a few hours and it will green up very nicely.
 
alamocdc even after putting wax on these, will it still turn green?

so sounds like turn it at put some wax on it and it will shine.

thanks
for all the info
 
Yep, but it takes longer. If you want the green to come back faster, add the Ren Wax after it greens up.

Oh, and if you did it right, it will shine BEFORE you wax it. The only reason I use Ren Wax on them is to gives the pen a little protection against the user's natural body acids before the oils in the wood can start to work in concert with them to provide a natural patina. I use this same finish for all oily woods, not just LV.
 
Originally posted by Firefyter-emt
<br />Speaking of this, does anyone have some blanks of this? I will be needing some for guide blocks on my big W/T band saw soon, heck.. I might just need a new fountian pen in this..

Drop me a PM if you have some to sell or maybe trade.
Click to expand...

BigRob has some listed....
 
I have my own classification for turning woods. 1) Woods, whether hard or soft that are hard to turn. (2) Woods that are very hard but a pleasure to turn. LV and OO are in that category. I enjoy turning both. OTOH, it is kind of featureless and considering the expense, there are a lot of prettier woods out there.
 
If anyone is interested I have some that I will part with. 1"x1" 6" long for $2.00 each including shipping. More that one is $1.50 plus $4.60 shipping.
Will post picture tonight in Individual Classifieds.
 
Here's an old discussion of finishing lignum vitae with its own resin. It's easy and it's pretty, but I've since found that CA seems to hold up better in wet environments (out on the ocean).

http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16663
 
Originally posted by Firefyter-emt
<br />Speaking of this, does anyone have some blanks of this? I will be needing some for guide blocks on my big W/T band saw soon, heck.. I might just need a new fountian pen in this..

Drop me a PM if you have some to sell or maybe trade.
Click to expand...

Hey, Lee, I have some. Just let me know how many you want and take what you think they're worth off the price for the tool rests.[;)]
 
i'm going to have to go against the grain of this forum and say that I really like CA as a finish on LV (of course, i like CA on everything, even my pizza). i know it looks beautiful without but after finishing a LV shaving brush with CA, it was one of the best CA finishes i've ever done.

here's a link to that shaving brush. the finish doesn't shine in the picture nearly as much as it does in real life. it was late at night and quite a few beers deep when i took this pic, so hopefully you can get some idea of what it looks like! [:p]

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w12/ahoiberg/Razors/lignumshave.jpg

try both styles of finish and see what you like best!
 
Originally posted by Rifleman1776
<br />I have my own classification for turning woods. 1) Woods, whether hard or soft that are hard to turn. (2) Woods that are very hard but a pleasure to turn. LV and OO are in that category. I enjoy turning both. OTOH, it is kind of featureless and considering the expense, there are a lot of prettier woods out there.
Click to expand...

Frank, the LV I have is varigated so I don't find it featureless at all.[;)]

Oh, and John, how's this?

<b>Image Insert:</b><br />
2005126191941_10kRB_LV2.jpg
<br />

<b>Image Insert:</b><br />
200512642324_sierraSS_lignum_vitae.jpg
<br />
 
Originally posted by alamocdc
<br />Frank, the LV I have is varigated so I don't find it featureless at all.[;)]
Click to expand...
Yes. Lignum vitae has a very tightly interlocked grain, which not only makes it very strong, but can give it an almost feathered appearance. Many pieces also contain lightly contrasting colors - i.e. nice striping.

And (now I'm not critisizing your pens in any way), that's not even premium LV. Most of the lignum vitae I've seen is just as pretty as the piece in your sierra.
 
You are correct, Eric. The first pen actually has better grain than is showing, but the photo quality and position of the pen hide that. It is not as nice as the Sierra, though, and most of my LV is even better than that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom