Rings on the pen?

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theHullTurn

theHullTurn

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Dec 16, 2009
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Since im still new to pen turning this may be an obvious question i just dont know about it yet :tongue:

I made a pen recently and there are darker and lighter rings around it. Maybe about 1/2 CM wide. I doubt its the wood. Is it from my sanding technique? any ideas? I dont think its from sanding because my other pens dont have the rings.

Thanks for the help in advance,
Jarvis
 
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Nathan
I sand with the lathe oh high speed. After each grit I stop the lathe and sand by hand in the direction of the grain to remove any circular sanding marks. Could be your problem.
 
Can you post a picture of an example of your issue? Many of us add rings on purpose, so just what it is you dont like could be what some of us call design opportunities.
My guess is, if its not curl in the wood, you have gouges in the wood that werent sanded out completely. As above, this is where you sand the length of the barrel, however, I sand a low rate of speed as I get burn marks from sanding too fast, could that be your problem? You may need to use a block to support the sand paper to get a flat surface.
 
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Nathan; The sanding technique I use is to sand with each grit:

For each grit sand with lathe on.
Turn off the lathe and sand lengthwise.
Wipe down both the sandpaper and blank (water for acrylics, Denatured Alcohol "DNA" for wood).
Turn lathe back on, and sand with next grit.
 
If it isn't the wood, and it isn't the sanding, it could be that you aren't getting a full wet and consistant coating of the finish. This can be a problem with a CA finish .
 
Could also be heat generated on some finishes,

The "could-be's" are lengthy. Post a pic, it will help.

And, yes, I felt like I joined a photography forum when I started here!! BUT, I have since gained GREAT insight from pictures. Even scanning your pen with a copier-scanner will help.
 
Ok here is a picture... sorry for the bad quality!(taken from my phone)
Hope it shows enough! Let me know what you think.
 

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I agree with Monty. Looks like the wood absorbed your first coat of finish unevenly.

What was the grit of your final sandpaper?
On light wood, MANY finishes will darken it, you may want to start with a sanding sealer next time.

Yes, the picture is blurry, so I could be "all wet", too!!
 
Do you know what type of wood that is? Like some others have mentioned, it looks like a "curly" or "quilted" wood and that's just how they look. Do the rings "move" as you tilt the pen from one side to the other?
 
Picture is a bit blurry but my first impression was, like the others, that it appears to be curl or figure in the wood....this is often a desired feature in wood and will not sand away, it is the actual grain appearance in the wood fibers
 
I'm also thinking it's the wood grain, of either a quilted or curly wood of some species, if the lines seem to move as you tilt the pen this is a natural chatoyance which is a quite sought after property of some woods.
 
It looks like chantoyance to me. I get that look all the time on the maple I have been turning. It's nothing you did wrong, its the wood. Looks good doesn't it??
 
If you want a more definete answer you need to give us a better photo. From this one I will agree with the others it is the grain pattern in the curly wood which looks like a maple.
 
looks like curly wood but it also looks like you may have darkened it a bit by creating alot of heat while sanding. hard to tell from the pic though...
btw your package went out today, contact me if you have any questions.
 
If it is getting shiner and has a luster when you move it, it is the wood. Most wood cut cross grain or quilted will have that. To totaly avoid it you need strigh grain wood cut withthe grain which is how most blanks are cut. It is the strongest and most consistant way to cut the wood but also the least intresting.

The only other time I got rings is on my finishing with ca/blo Now I start with blo first then do the ca when you mix the two if the blo touches the wood befor the ca the color is different. but if you are using one finish I doubt that is your issue. Also sand to 600 and stop in between and sand lighly up and down this will help elimate some issues.
 
I'm not sure if this is the same thing that Nathan is seeing, but it sounds like what I'm getting. Brighter patterns (not necessarily rings, though) that change with viewing angle (almost a 3-D effect). It's almost random--it doesn't follow the pattern of the grain, nor the sanding pattern. Is this chatoyance, or just something I screwed up during finishing? (Click on the thumbnail below--it's quite visible in the larger photo.)

Pen 2010-01-15 sm.jpg
 
dustmaker said:
Yup, that's chatoyance...and a very good looking pen too!
Click to expand...

Interesting. Just after I posted the photo, I noticed that the patterns weren't random after all. While looking at the lines and waves and changes in direction, I realized that these bright patterns were always at right angles to the grain. As the grain changed, so did the patterns.

Is this what chatoyance does? When I first heard about it, I expected it (for no particular reason) to go with the grain, not against it.

Thanks for the compliment on the pen. Actually, I think it's better than the quicky photo shows. The color is wrong in the photo, and you can't see the grain patterns very well--it's quite beautiful (the wood that is, I'm too new at this to judge pen quality accurately:biggrin:).
 
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