Hi peoples,
Some more orders have been shipped today, and those are;
*- Pauldoug (US) second part of the order (BT blanks), Darrin1200 (CAN), Nava1uni (US).
There are a few more orders to be processed but I'm waiting of the payment confirmation to proceed...!
The orders that included bottle stopper blanks, I endup turning them round(ish to accomplish 3 things, weight reduction, better presentation and less wood to dry...!
I am changing the way I'm processing the bottle stopper blanks for various reasons, I don't really like the way they come up after the first batch has been processed for sale. The pen blanks seem to have performed a little better than the BT's, mainly due to the thickness (wood volume) involved.
Both type blanks are going to be processed differently, heat is not helping much for the results I want, this vine material is certainly different and is reacting a little too badly to heat from the firewood, making the wood go totally mad...!
This is my first time processing such wood material and certainly I'm learning very quickly, what not to do with it, from its reaction. One of the difficulties, is to balance to behaviour of the 2 different type woods, within the vine body. It doesn't have the common sapwood and heartwood, but a percentage (varies dramatically from piece to piece) of "dead" wood and the rest of

"non-dead wood", I can't say live wood because is not so, and until I/we find a better description for it, this will do...! unless..., we call it dry wood and green wood...!!!

:wink:
Anyway, having these 2 type woods joint together by nature ,and me wanting to produce a mix of the 2 materials for best contrast and effect, we have a bloody fight between these two, with the dead wood, being dead and doing nothing, and the fresh/green wood wanting to twist and crack/separate/explode away...!

:frown:
With the pen blanks is noticeable but with the BT's is just madness so, I'm trying another way of dealing with this material, which I've used many times before in "difficult" or "with a mind of their own" woods...! The idea is not provoke the wood fibres to tense up, shrink as distort so the first thing is keep them away from heat (just doesn't like it...). Secondly, remove all the excess wood (rounding on the BT's and remove square corners on the pen blanks, as soon as they are processed from the vine.
Allow 1 day for the exposed wood to lose some humidity (surface dry), dip the blanks into my preferred wood stabilizer, the "Fungishield", drain and rack them to dry under cover and in normal conditions (good air flow). This is my process with all my green turnings, regardless of wood used and if this vine material stabilises as easy/well as I think it does (tests done from the 3 pen blanks samples made a while back...!), we going to endup with blanks that will maintain its shape and size reasonably well, will not develop many cracks and will dry (the green wood/material) without too much fighting with the dead/dry stuff...!
From the tests I've done with the first batch of BT's I took to the house firewood area, the very wood surface was dry but a couple of mm in the wood was far from dry, indeed it read the same MC% content than those freshly cut. The reason for this is that, the heat has harden considerably the wood surfaces, sealing the heat from reaching the wood any further in but in the process, the hard skin formed, was also creating the distortion of the blanks. This can be easily explained by the phenomenal flexibility vines have, the fibres within work like springs/strings, allowing those to harden will provoke the fibres to tense up, shrink and twist...!
I'm certain that everyone will understand that I'm working with a new material to me, and there are not a lot of information about them for this propose that I can relate to for study so, I learn as I go...!
Is obvious that my general experience with normal/common woods is allowing me to address these problems/situations with some ease but not, without some extra time spending experimenting...!:wink::biggrin:
I'm adding a few pics of the new way I'm processing these blanks and before I forget, as far as I know and using all the various finishes I normally use, the Fungishield did not affect any of them in anyway shape or form, including gluing where, glue-ups where made within days of the liquid stabilizer was applied into the wood. My experience refers to hot days with medium to high temperatures, obviously could weather and low temperatures with high humidity levels, means that the treated wood should be left longer to dry before glues are used...!
So, lets see what this lot is going to do...! The BT blanks, after rounded and treated with the stabilizer, are still lighter than those that I've sent away with the square corners cut off so, they are ready to ship a couple of days after being treated...! You will see and know those blanks that will be safe to turn soon after arrival (I strongly recommend to let this wood acclimatize to your conditions for a week or so before attempting to turn...!), those will be the ones with less areas of green wood and mostly dead wood.
With the pen blanks will be pretty much the same thing...!
Cheers
George