Bought Some New Pen Blanks....

[Corey Hallagan]

One thing here, I am becoming a pen blank junkie! Since buying the lathe, I have really begun to appreciate all the fine and beautiful wood available to turn especially for pen turning and reasonable & affordable, even if you can only buy one of them.
Today I got some burls! Amboyna Burl, Afzelia Burl, Buckeye Burl and some more Kingwood and Rosewood. Cool stuff. There is one piece of rosewood that is just gorgeous, and you look at it and say, man why couldn't it all look like that! But that is what makes collecting these things fun I guess.
The burls.... what do I need to know about turning these? I expected them to be very hard but they are not. I had a piece of Amboyna from John Hart that was a pinkish and feels very hard. The 2 pieces I got today are fairly soft but very kewl looking. The nicest piece with deep rich reds and burgundy's browns etc .. I dropped, broke in half. I could cry. the afzelia burls are also very light and almost punky feeling, not smooth like the Amboyna. Maybe it bandsaws rough? The Buckeye Burl is not stabilized and it is very pretty but very light and spongey feeling.
Anyway,I am rambling here but wanted to know if I need to know anything special in turning the burls in particular. Anyway, I am a sucker for a flashy pen blanks, is there a 12 step program, any other junkies out there?

Yes Ken, I have been sniffing the exotics, now I know how Andy got hooked on it

thanks,
Corey

[Bob Noles]

Corey,

Silence is sometimes golden, but I am going to break silence and simply say..... you ain't turned until you turn cherry burl

Weeeehooooo!<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

[Corey Hallagan]

Oh yes, the infamous piece of CB you got from John, the local pusher if I remember right it delt yah fits?

corey

[Bernie Weishapl]

Corey CB turns as nice or nicer than walnut I think anyway. You'll like the buckeye to. Has a nutty smell to it.

[Corey Hallagan]

I dont know Bernie, the burls are a little different than the straight grained stock I think. I guess we will see!

corey

[Gary Max]

Corey when I have a pen blank that feels to soft I use CA to help stablize it.
I may have to apply it more than once---usually the first time is on the rough blank then the second coat is when I get it round. I use thin CA so that it soaks in as much as possible. The best way is to send them out and get the stablized ---runs about a buck each.

[John Hart]

Hey Gary...how's your Spalted Beech Stabilization project coming along?

[David Fried]

Corey,

If you don't have a cabinet like the one in the back of my truck here:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=19115

You need one! Mine holds pen blanks and other small treasures. I've collected more different species than I ever thought possible and the cabinet isn't even half full! Keep collecting!!

Dave Fried

[Mac McAtee]

If you really value those punkey pieces send them off to River Ridge and get them stablized.

[Ron Ainge]

Corey

Go down to the local paint store and get you some Minwax wood hardner and then put it into a container that has an air tight lid. I use a quart mason jar. then put your blanks into it and lwt them soak for a couple of days. Take them out of the container and stand them on end on a piece of paper towel to dry. The drying process should only take a couple of days and then you can do what you want to with them. When you send them out to have them stabalized they do about the same thing with one difference, they put them under vacumm. I have tried both ways and I find the I did not need the vacumm if I left the blanks to soak for a couple of days.

[Mike Wenzloff]

Ha Corey!

Addictive it is.

The photo below is of a closet my wife "stores" her wood in. See the blue hamper in the back and the grocery sack peeking out in front of it? That is pen blans, all sawn up. She has about 10 of those full. Everything from Ambonya to Zebra, Ebony to Cocobolo and all sors of domestics, spalted Black Walnut and spalted Maple. Highly figured Bubinga and curly Bloodwood. She's got it all.



And then there is her drawered cabinet downstairs:



That one has a few turning squares, the rest are bags of pen blanks.

Don't let this happen to YOU!

Take care, Mike

[Tom Conger]

[QUOTE]The burls.... what do I need to know about turning these?/QUOTE]

I notice that the burled wood can sometimes chip out. Maybe because some of my wood isn't stabilized. I have learned, after having a number "explode" while turning, that little bitty cut strokes are needed. (Definition of explode: There is a crack running thru the wood that is not obvious, the gouge catches it at the wrong angle, and tears it off the brass tube.) It might be that it would happen anyways, but now I try to minimize it.

So now I start off with the gouge, and do light pressure until the cutoff ends are flush. Had a few blow outs when cutting off the excess left from squaring up the tube, so I have learned that lesson. Once the blank is round and is about a 1/4" or so from the guide bearings, I switch to a 1/2" skew and slowly take the blank to it's final size. This takes longer, but beats tearing holes. I also push the skew from the inside of the blank to the outside so as not to tear or rip. I am not very good yet with the skew, so I usually leave a bunch of tool marks, but nothing that 220 grit at 3500 rpm's can't fix.

[Corey Hallagan]

Thanks guys for the information. Yes Mike and David it is getting nearly that bad. I now have 2 drawers full of pen blanks and another one full of cut offs and shorts from some auctions. David, nice cabinet for sure. Mike, you wife has it bad!

Ron, I will do just that especially on the buckeye burl. The Amboyna and Afzelia Burls I am not sure if I need to do that or not, probably wouldn't hurt as Tom says. Tom, thanks for info, since I am a new pen turner, you method is how I do it anyway, gingerly remove wood with rough gouge until round as smoothly as I can, once round I switch to a 1/2 skew to finish. It probably takes me much longer to turn a pen than most, I am slow! Thanks for all the help and suggestions. This weekend I am turning some Wieshapl Walnut for a pen, pencil and letter opener for my 2nd, 3rd and fourth offerings. Story at 10:

Corey