Pine cone chipping out on ends

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randyrls

randyrls

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I'm starting on a Pine cone and acrylic pen (Dragon skin)? I'm getting some chip out on the ends where the cone material isn't as strong as the acrylic.

I soaked the ends in thin CA, but that doesn't seem to help. I've thought of gluing some thin wood or plastic on the blank ends.

How have you prevented the ends from chipping out??? Do I need to cut from the outside towards the center?? My skew is sharp and easily shear cuts the acrylic.

The chip outs aren't to the degree where they will impact the finished pen yet, but I don't want to chuck this out, it is beautiful material.
 
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I like the cup style carbides or shear scraping to deal with such situations. I find them common with "mixed media" materials because of the different materials changing density and fiber alignment. Sometimes even with plastic injected blanks there will be soft spots.

Shear scraping is not something I do with a skew -- I am using a John Jordan style shear scraping tool, a closed flute bowl gouge, or a negative rake scraper to get the fine whispy shavings.

Keep the speed up --

If you try to use abrasives, be sure to use a firm pad behind the abrasives because of the different densities of the material.
 
Absolutely. Soak in Ca. Turn a bit, soak again. Keep doing this alternating with Ca, then turn, til you get down to solid wood. You should be OK.
 
You already found your answer.

Try cutting from the outside in.
The reason for the blowout is unsupported amterial to the outsides of your blank, and the material combination is not supporting itself for that last 1/16 or so of an inch.

So once again, try cutting from the outside in.
 
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