Majestic Jr and Majestic pens cracking

[Mauricio Ulloa]

Hi,

I use fresh cocobolo to make blanks for my pens. I use the microwave to dry my blanks, and I dry them for 2- 3 minutes. I let the wood cool down an then I drill the blancks and continue the process. I've noticed that once the pens are done, they crack at the endings. Sometimes they also srink. The worst case are the Majestic and Majestic Jr models.

I'm extremelly cautious with the assembly process.

Is it still due to humidity? Is it there another reason for the wood to crack like this?

I have an electric oven from harbor freight that is originally designed for powder coating. Would it work? Last time I put it very low and I almost burned the blanks.

What can I do? Thanks for your help

[Steve Schlumpf]

Mauricio,

Sounds like the blanks are drying at too fast a rate. If you microwave them - the rapid build up of heat can not help things. I would think that you would have a better chance of microwaving your blanks if you only heated them up for a minute or so - then wrapped them in a towel or something to slow down the moisture loss while cooling. I would imagine you would need to repeat this process a few times before your blanks are actually dry enough to use.

Hopefully someone with experience drying pen blanks will jump in here and offer some suggestions.

Best of luck with this!

[David E Keller]

I've never tried to speed along the drying of a pen blank, so I don't have any suggestions backed by experience. I do wonder how the DNA drying method would work for blanks. Seems like that might be a safer route.

My guess is that the blanks are not fully dry after the microwave treatment. The cracking probably occurs due to ongoing drying of the wood. Certainly the shrinking is an indication of continued drying.

I'd try to DNA soak them and then set them aside for 6 months or so. A moisture meter could certainly give you a more accurate estimate of the water content.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Mauricio it sounds to me like you did not get the blank dry. I had that happen to some walnut. I found it takes more than one time thru the microwave to dry them properly. Most times on pen blanks 3/4 X 3/4 X 5 it may take at least a dozen heat and cool cycles. IMHO the blanks weren't dry enough.

[Allen Neighbors]

Mauricio, I agree with the other guys. Your wood wasn't completely dry, and finished drying after you assembled the pen. I've had the same thing happen with ebony, too.
I dry pen blanks in an old refrigerator "kiln" that I made, using a light bulb and fan, with holes in the top and bottom of the refrigerator case.
I cut the blanks to size, and then sticker them in the kiln. After about 3 weeks, I can turn them. With Ebony, I drill a 3/16 hole through them, to aid in drying, and then bore the hole to the correct size when they're dry. Sometimes it takes a few months to dry ebony blanks.

[Mauricio Ulloa]

I have an urgent order for this week! Due to the time constraints, I'll try a combination of the recommendations that you guys have provided.

Thanks!