Palm

[Wooden_Pen_Turner_11]

Has anyone ever turned it? I tried a palm slimline and I was attacked by little straws the entire < 5 minutes that it took for a chunk to fly into my dust collector, big enough to show brass.

 

[wiset1]

I've used Black palm and it looks awesome if you can get it where you want it. The secret is thin CA and lots of it as you turn the Palm down.

 

[hunter-27]

Red Palm is easier than Black Palm but both require the sharpest tools with very light cuts.

 

[paramount Pen]

I hav'nt had that problem since I started using epoxy to glue the tubes in. I had a lot of that going on with ca but Ed4copys has a video showing the proper way to use ca and if I use ca again I'll use the thick and follow the way he did it on the video as it seems a better way to do it.

 

[its_virgil]

Black palm, red palm, ali palm....not an easy material to turn. If you want a real challenge try cross cut palm.:biggrin::biggrin:
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Has anyone ever turned it? I tried a palm slimline and I was attacked by little straws the entire < 5 minutes that it took for a chunk to fly into my dust collector, big enough to show brass.

 

[PTsideshow]

Not a pen But I have practice turned some black palm, I was playing with my pen pro and it turned very nice. As been said light cuts, I didn't use CA but didn't have any problems.
In my reading I come across a mention that Black palm is a "GRASS" not a tree tree.
Being from Michigan, the only palms I am familiar with is the ones between the fingers and wrists! So that would indicate lighter cuts as it suggests very compressed compacted fibers.
:clown:

 

[firewhatfire]

AMEN

Black palm, red palm, ali palm....not an easy material to turn. If you want a real challenge try cross cut palm.:biggrin::biggrin:
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Has anyone ever turned it? I tried a palm slimline and I was attacked by little straws the entire < 5 minutes that it took for a chunk to fly into my dust collector, big enough to show brass.

 

[robutacion]

Well, You can make pens out of any Palm species, no doubt one of the
secrets is to by-pass the cutting gouges and use the "Flap disc system". as soon as you have the soft material down to slight oversize of the finished barrel(s)/pen, you can then soak it with thin CA and then finish with a sharp gouge or the same Flap disc system but this time with a 120 grit and the the 40 grit used to cut...!

There is a bit of info about this Flap disc system in here

Good luck,

Cheers
George

 

[biednick]

I have turned it. I used carbide, and a 40 grit gouge. I recently turned a black palm bowl too

 

[mredburn]

Yep red palm with no problems.

 

[Sylvanite]

If you want a real challenge try cross cut palm.:biggrin::biggrin:

Crosscut palm can be challenging, but it is doable.

Crosscut Red Palm Euro

Regards,
Eric

 

[ren-lathe]

Turned several. A gouge works but as has been said you have to take light cuts. & squaring with a pen mill can be a disaster .

 

[JamesB]

Turned several. A gouge works but as has been said you have to take light cuts. & squaring with a pen mill can be a disaster .

So how would one square it? A sander?

 

[ren-lathe]

A sander is what I use on palm. The pen mill tends to grab the filaments and tear them away. That is also why you need to take light cuts. It is an interesting wood to work with as it has no growth rings. Also the outer area of the trunk is much harder the the center.

 

[Kaaawaz28]

Lauhala is fun to work with,very similar to palm. I like it turned both ways but love cross cut better

 

[t001xa22]

The issues with palm may be the main reason I have not made another one. I did this one about a year ago before I got so much better ideas from the forum. It was quite a struggle, but I found out that if I concentrated on making angled slicing passes with my skew rather than flat cuts, it went better. However, I did have to use my palm dust and thin CA to reinforce the exposed grain near the end of my profiling.

 

[tomas]

The second pen I ever made was black palm. It turned out really nice and I kept it for myself. However, I have tried black palm again numerous times and the blank has blown up every time. It must just have been beginner's luck.

Tomas