Spalted Pecan Slimline

[leenollie]

I just posted my newest pen into my album leenollie.This is the wood I soaked in polyurethane (under a vacuum) on Saturday night. By Sunday morning, the blanks had soaked to the bottom. While turning though, I had to spot fix pieces using CA glue. For a fininsh, I used a CA/BLO mixture in three layers followed by two coats of HUT Crystal Coat. I hope everyone likes it.

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Lee Biggers
The ever curious pen turner

 

[wdcav1952]

Lee,
Very nice! Have you turned any of the same wood untreated to see how your process affects the turning qualities of the wood?
William

 

[Daniel]

Lee,
great looking pen and I second Williams comparison suggestion.
also could you give a more complete evaluation of the stabalizing process adn do you seet he potential for correcting the weak spots. It is very unlikely that you will land on the perfect formula the first time through.
perhaps a higher vacume. thinner solution, and I am sure I coudl come up with several other variables to tinker with.

 

[leenollie]

Good morning all,

I have tried turning some of this wood untreated untreated, but it is real punky and tears off in chunks. I have been giving some thought to leaving it in the polyurethane for 24 hours and then letting it dry for another 48 hours before turning. Also, I am going to try other solutions, such as Pentacryl, Nelsonite (whenever they send me the information they said they were sending,) and possibly others. As far as a higher vacuum, 20-inches is a pretty high vacuum. Most standard gauges only read to 30-35 inches. It is possible to get higher vacuum than 35-inches, but the equipment is very expensive. Anyway, I have another set of blanks in solution now that I started at 9:45 last night. By 10:20, the blanks had already sunk to the bottom of the can. I am writing a tutorial of my progress thus far. It is in WORD right now because I don't have ADOBE Writer software on my PC. When I am finished with it, possibly today, I will post it to the "Tips" forum.

Lee Biggers
The ever curious pen turner []

 

[Scott]

Hi Lee,

Actually, this would probably make a nice article for our Articles section. Especially if you have pictures to go with it. If you're interested in going this way, write it up as best you can, and send it with pictures to me. I'll do a little editing and polishing, then Jeff will put it in PDF format and post it on the site. Let me know!

BTW, I like that pen!

Scott.

 

[leenollie]

Hey Scott, I have already sent an email to admin@penturners.org with my WORD document attached. Although I have only used polyurethane so far, I don't think it should make a difference what stabilizing solution one would use. It may just take a little longer, depending on the vioscosity of the solution. As I said in my paper: "Nature abhors a vacuum and will do everything in its power to equalize a vacuum." Once the air is removed from the wood, something will have to replace it.

Lee Biggers
The ever curious pen turner []

 

[Daniel]

An Article is a great idea. The home brew stabalizing issue is one that comes up again and again yet never seems to get much of an answer found.
and I agree with the vacume statment above. It doesn't require alot of vacume to get things moving in a powerful way. but even comeing up with a vacume "chamber" is an advancment with this issue. Finding the right product to be soking the wood in may simply be a process of elemination with a bit of education getting thrown in as it progresses.