Redwood Burl Gentlemens Pen

[Jim in Oakville]

Hi,

I am not sure why, but redwood burls I and I do not get along at all. This was a bear of a blank to finish even though it's a stabilized blank. I had so many problems with it crumbling and not staying together...it's my last.

Any one else have a similar problem with this woo

d?

 

[Travlr7]

I agree, even Redwood without the burl, is hard for me to get what I consider an accepptable finish.

That said, the pen still has a certain flair.

Bruce[]

 

[alamocdc]

Jim, I've only done one Redwood burl and I attempted to stabilize it myself. It didn't appear to take up any of the solution, but it turned and finished well. Is the crackled look a result of what you are referring to? I think it looks kind of cool.

 

[Old Griz]

I have done a few redwoods pens, burls and just some nice curly woods... I send some to Steve to have professionally stabilized and he said it took almost no stabilization.. I found that interesting (as he did) since it soaks up BLO like a sponge...
On the few unstabilized pieces I did, I found that you need a real light touch with the tools since it is sooo soft, sand with an extremely light touch to the finest grits you have because it will hold sanding marks like no tomorrow. I also use BLO to pop the grain on most and then burnish it in with a piece of brown paper bag and then let dry for a couple of days because the BLO soaks deep into the redwood (found that out doing a scroll saw project with some). After the BLO has dried, I use cellulose sanding sealer and resand to 12000MM and then the finish of choice.. in my case either lacquer or enduro...

 

[Ron Mc]

Jim,
I brought a nice Redwood Burl back from California and cut a couple blanks off of it. The first pen I made was Baron. The turned blanks are still sitting on their posts because I'm just not happy enough with the finish to bother using a kit.
The second pen is a......Chunk of wood sitting their waiting patiently for it's turn. No pun intended!

 

[alamocdc]

Tom, mine soaked up the Deft Sanding Sealer the same way. I'm thinking that the stabilizing solution may be just too thick for cell structure of this wood. If I get any more of it, I think I'll try using a less viscous stabilizing solution.

 

[Dario]

I used thin CA on most of mine and had no problems.