Snakewood European

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Here are a couple pens I made today. The first is a European ballpoint made of Snakewood. I put a CA finish on it as I was afraid to heat it up with a friction polish finish. I have had some Snakewood crack in the past, so I wanted to avoid the heat.
EuroSnake.jpg


The second pen is a platinum Baron rollerball made of Amboyna Burl with Blackwood inlays. This is my pen for the Pen Maker's Guild pen swap. It is a new inlay pattern for me. I'm not thrilled with it because I like the shapes with sharper edges better. I do like the way the Blackwood inlays look with the black accents of the kit though.
BaronAmb.jpg
 
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Jim youi have two very nice looking pens. I hope that your luck with snakewood is better than mine, every pen that I've done with it has ended up cracking no matter what I did. I've finely desided that with so many other veriaties of wood to choose from, until someone comes up with a good way to harness the stuff I'll use the others. One of these days I have to try my hand at inlay in pens, I've done it in all my other woodworking but not with pens yet. Nice work.

Wayne
 
Jim, those are superb! Give us some feedback later on the snakewood. I've made three of them (no friction polish), and all three of them cracked on me within a relatively short period of time.
 
Jim, once again you came up with a couple of beautiful pens! I really like the Snakewood pen, sure hope it holds up for you. Thanks for posting!
 
Great job on both pens. Hope you have good luck on the snakewood not cracking - that would really be a shame.

The guild should really appreciate your work!
 
Wayne,
I had the same experience with Snakewood, so I removed it from my wood selection on my website. A customer called me and specifically requested a Snakewood pen. I told him I would make it and hold onto it for two weeks. If it doesn't crack in that time period, I will ship it to him. I was careful not to apply any significant heat while drilling, turning and finishing it. I also filed the inside of the tubes before assembly so as to minimize stress when the fittings are pressed into place. This is the same treatment I give ivory pens. I'll see how it goes.
 
Jim...Those are both beautiful as usual. You really have the knack to put together a beautiful pen. I always enjoy seeing them. Thanks
 
Jim, the inlays look great. I like the fact that it is a more subtle look than, for example, the shark. Not that the shark is ugly or anything! I just think this really blends nicely with both the wood and the kit.
 
Doug,
I believe Snakewood is one of those tight grained woods that stabilization has no effect on. Somebody correct me if I am wrong. I appreciate the suggestion.
 
Very nice Jim, I love snakewood, it is in my tope 5. But I have problems with it to. I read where Richard K. said he boils his snakewood and has had no problems, I also heard it doesn't help. My next batch I make, I am going to boil and put a CA finish on to see what happens.
 
I believe Snakewood is one of those tight grained woods that stabilization has no effect on.
Click to expand...
I wonder if sending an e-mail to the people who do stabilizing and asking them if it would work . I know that there is one that has been named here quite a bit but I can't remember his name . Could prove beneficial .
 
I had send some Snakewood blanks to Steve White of River Ridge Products for stabilization. Steve and I talked about this and this wood cannot be stabilized. Steve always checks if there is a weight gain, i.e. that stabilizing resin enters the wood, but he told me that in the case of the Snakewood there was no weight change at all.

Rudy
SE MI
 
Gorgeous, Jim. Almost as nice as a nice tiger pradauk with wooly mammoth mako shark inlay that I have in my "Made by others" album! [:D]
 
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