riplakish5
Member
My next hobby is going to be photography
Snakewood & Gold
- Thread starter riplakish5
- Start date
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
mark james
IAP Collection, Curator
Looks very nice to me! A fussy timber, but you did well. 
Jim15
Member
Great work.
riplakish5
Member
Very fussy, get it too warm and it will crack, every time. Use it very often and you learn how to avoid heat or fix hair line cracks. But it is one of my favorites.Looks very nice to me! A fussy timber, but you did well.
Tanner
Member
Really cool looking pen!
Woodchipper
Member
I second the other's motions.
Dvoigt
Member
It really should be! Snake wood grain is hard to capture in pictures. Good work on both accounts!
egnald
Member
Very Nice! - I've never been brave enough to try Snakewood because of it's crack-prone nature. Good Job! - Dave
jacobrts
Member
Anybody have tips on working with it? I'm super new to this and getting some snakewood blanks soon and don't want to ruin them.
My tongue and cheek tip is to put the blanks away until you are not super new
hokie
Member
When I first used snakewood, it was with kits like most folks here. I encountered the same cracking issues often described. In recent years, I have transitioned to kitless and my method off assembling the parts is to slip fit with adhesive rather than the interference/press fit approach of kits. When I did that, I never encountered another crack in snakewood or ebony again. I'm convinced most, if not all, problems with those super dense woods is related to the pressure from the expanding brass tube. They are too brittle to take that constant force. If they don't crack during assembly, any outside force like heat or a drop would likely trigger a crack.
jacobrts
Member
Yeah.. Turned it yesterday and thought it was a success - but then I saw a bunch of cracks as I started to polish it.My tongue and cheek tip is to put the blanks away until you are not super new
It's horrible stuff to work with.
Treat it like a newborn baby. If you are doing an operation to the wood that involves you engaging any muscles in your body, it will crack
In all seriousness I think the cracking mostly comes down to heat expansion and excessive force. Drill extremely slowly, back out often, and if the blank is getting hot, take a break and let it cool down for 15-20 mins before continuing. Before gluing tubes in, make sure the blank is at room temp. Round the square blank very slowly and carefully with sharp tools. And plan on a CA finish, so that any cracks that do form get filled in and stabilized.