Some Pens Out of Macassar Ebony

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DrD

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As I stated in an earlier thread, Requesting Assistance 8/31/2020, I have a rather large chunk of Macassar Ebony, also known as Striped Ebony and Amara Ebony. The heartwood generally has a very dramatic and appealing striped appearance. It is oily AND dulls cutter blades faster than you can say "Bubba loves trucks."

I have included some photos of 4 pens I just completed using this Macassar Ebony. Please note, being a dark wood - it is ebony - it is rather difficult for me to photograph in such a way as to capture the figure and color of the wood.

Photo 1 shows all 4 pens. The first - on the far left - is an Elegant Sierra - chrome and satin chrome - and there is only a wax finish on the wood. The wood on all 4 pens was sanded thru 1000 mesh paper, followed by sanding with the grain, off the lathe from 3600 thru 12000 MM. The first pen then received 2 coats of Ren Wax, on the lathe at ~1700rpm, buffed following each coat.

The second from the left in photo 1 is a free-style (what I call my DefensiveLine, as opposed to a Streamline) and is made from the wood shown in photo 4. Follow sanding, this pen received 3 coats of PensPlus, on the lathe, followed by 2 coats of Ren Wax. Photo 3 is another view of the DL pen, attempting to capture more the figure and color of the wood. Photo 4 shows the sanded blanks for the DL pen prior to finishing.

The second photo attempts to show some more of the grain in pens 1 and 2.

Photo 5 is a closer shot of a StreamLind RoundTop 7mm, without the center band and an Elegant Sierra Button Click. The Round Top was finished just like it's bigger brother, the DL, with 3 coats of PensPlus. The Button Click was finished with CA. Since Macassar Ebony is oily, after sanding off the lathe, with the grain, with the last MM, I mounted the blank on the lathe, spun it up to ~1700 rpm and wiped the blank thoroughly with denatured alcohol until there was no color being left on the rag, After the pen dried I applied a very thin coat of thin CA and let the blank sit overnight. The next day I applied CA, 2 coats of thin, followed by 10 coats of medium. After drying, I removed the blank from the lathe and hand dry sanded again, with the grain, using all 9 of the MM pads. Finally the blank was remounted on the lathe and 2 coats of Ren Wax was applied.

Thanks for looking. Any comments are appreciated
 

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DrD

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decided not dedied ! small keyboard , big fingers🤦‍♂️
Yes. My original thread voiced my concern about using CA on such an oily wood. In that thread(?) several folks allowed that surface cleaning with a polar solvent like acetone allowed them to go ahead with CA. I don' keep acetone in the shop, but do keep a slightly less polar solvent, denatured alcohol. So did applied denatured alcohol until there was no more sign of oil coming off then applied a light coat of thin, porous CA. Checked it the next day and everything looked fine. Then proceeded to finish with normal CA process.
 
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DrD

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Beautiful pens. I have a piece of that wood as well, I use it very sparingly, it's very expensive stuff.


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Thanks Ken! I have a lot of nice wood in my shop, mostly burls, and I find them to be very attractive, some even beautiful on the pens I turn. Macassary Ebony is to me the wood I would use for a bespoke pen. Truth to tell, the timber used for the 4 pens shown were miss-cuts I made when trying to cut some pen blanks for Churchill and El Grande fountain pens. Initially I thought of throwing them away but decided to work with them a bit. I am pleased you like them.

Don
 
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