Hi peoples,
I just found this thread by mistake, I was actually looking for the other thread where you had this open and some other, I never knew this thread about this particular blanks existed so, I apologise everyone for not making any comments before and provide some information about these blanks.
I have a new turner that bought 3 of these blanks from me and is most excited in start working on them, and is asking me if he has to paint the tubes so, I was going to find the pen you made, find your name, request permission to use the pics to show him and other and maybe put of the eBay listing for people to see, would you allow me to do that...??
I have turned many samples of these Banksia hairy pods from my front yard, but I'm yet to actually make a pen for one of the blanks, there has been various cuts used on their make, straight cut (1/4 pod, diagonal, straight cut using only the centre of the pod )one pod per blank), 1 cross piece with a long tail (pod piece at one end continuing filling the bottom part with the Banksia hairs, cross piece in the centre with hith extensions on each end of the blank, and the double cross pieces, each piece fills half of the blank, making these the most liked blanks so far.
They are simply cast in crystal clear PR (polyester resin) and then soaked with thin CA after cut and sanded. There are a layer of red type velvet in this pods that doesn't allow much soaking, the casting resin doesn't soak while all the other pod parts are kept together tight by the resin.
My CA soaking goes only so far so, thin CA soaking is a must as the blank gets turned down and exposes more of that velvet layer.
Interestingly, I attempted to stabilize the pod before casting and or stabilise the blanks after has been cast and cut/sanded to expose the soft layer, the idea was that the juice would find its way through the soft areas and penetrate those areas that the "cooking" would harden but, this process doesn't work well as to set the juice hard, the blanks have to be under 90° Celsius for 90 minutes and the PR doesn't like that at all, making it too brittle and shatter.
While stabilizing the pod before casting did work slightly better, even the juice doesn't harden that velvet material completely, there is, there is a great improvement of the hardness of the pod material in general but those velvet layers still require localised thin CA soaking as it is turned, a lot less, thought
These stabilised and then cast blanks, didn't seem to please people much, I think that is from the fact that, stabilizing each blanks cost $1.50 and that was obviously added to the normal blank price. I have done some detailed tests with those stabilised and cast blanks, and in my opinion the extra stabilization cost, worth every cent as the blank turns 100% better, a lot less use of the CA (savings there) and a lot less tear as you go, all due to the juice...!
However, people would ignore the stabilised ones and prefer the raw cast pod so, I stop stabilizing and made them all with the pod in its natural raw condition.
Yes, they are not something that I would advise a new inexperienced pen turner to tackle before he/she would get some more experience under his/hers "belt", one of the most important steps that I would suggest is that the blanks is wrapped around 4 or 5 times with some strong tape, any plastic tape in NOT suitable as it stretches, you want a firm type tape.
The second suggestion is to soak the drilled hole with thin CA before the tube is glued in, just think about it and you will realise what the this CA will do inside of that drilled hole, it will run in any small crevices and gaps between the pod layers, including the velvet layer and harden in there, you may need to run the drill bit again though the whole to clean it a little but, this will allow the tube to be glued to the pod in a much better and safer way, regardless of what type of glue you use to glue the tubes (I suggest epoxy).
There will be a point where, the last CA soak you perform on the turned blank, will reach the CA harden areas from the tube outwards, this represents the best possible adhesion properties on all the pod material that is going to stay attached to the tube, this way, the chances of "ripping" chunks from the tube, too close to finishing, are seriously reduced...!
In fact, the principle applies to any blank...!:wink:
Most of the most beautiful pens ever made, didn't happen with a 15 minute turning job, they are blanks that vary from extremely fragile to extremely hard to work with and anything in between so, one can not expect to get results such as those shown in the poster pics and not spend a little time with it, the efforts will be well rewarded, guaranteed...!
The Banksia Hairy pods blanks, have been sold here on IAP, some time ago, lots of pics and info in it,
here
I hope this gives a bit more "inside" of what this blanks are about...!
You done that blank justice and made me proud, thank you...!
Cheers
George
