Virage Pen w/Spalted Blank

[Billy Tallant]

Got a little shop time this afternoon. Finished this pen up & got another blank gluing for tomorrow. I made a swap with one of the IAP members last week for a few blanks. Decided to try one of his blanks out today. Wood was a little soft, so turned it down close to size. Then drizzled a little thin CA all over it. Gave it a little accelerator & then finished turning/sanding down to size. Put about 8 coats of medium CA on it, then sanded/mm/Hut plastic polish to finish it up. Then put a little Ren Wax on for a final finish.

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[Rodney Walker]

Nice pen. Well worth the extra glue and time you took to stabilize it.
Rodney

[Rodney Hoyle]

Billy,

Nice job, spalting looks great. I just did my a job for a friend. The piece was a western redwood root about 11" long that was picked up on a vacation out west many years ago. His mom signed and dated it and it was placed in one of his snake cages. He brought it to me and asked if I could do a pen for his mom. This piece looked like a twisted, fluted root and weighed nothing. With only a couple of months turning pens under my belt, I told him that this root may turn to dust. He said go for it. I was able to bandsaw his moms info from the root and salvage that much in case of wood failure on the lathe. I was able to get a 5 x3/4 blank from the remaining piece. I was turning a slimline style and noticed that about 90% turned down that the wood was extremely soft and friable. I put a coat of medium CA w/accelerator and was able to cut it almost to finished size then I applied a second coat of medium CA and was able to complete the project with no issues. I put a total of 8 coats on and finished with high gloss polish. I brought it to him, but first I said good news/bad news and showed him a ziplock with about 12 pieces of the root:eek:. He immediately said, "did it explode". I said I was able to save your mom's info and BTW here is the last piece which was the finished pen. He could not believe that pen came from the root. Needless to say he was a very happy camper. CA can cure a lot of issues.:)

Rodney

[Billy Tallant]

Nice pen. Well worth the extra glue and time you took to stabilize it.
Rodney

Thanks for the comments Rodney!


Billy,

Nice job, spalting looks great. I just did my a job for a friend. The piece was a western redwood root about 11" long that was picked up on a vacation out west many years ago. His mom signed and dated it and it was placed in one of his snake cages. He brought it to me and asked if I could do a pen for his mom. This piece looked like a twisted, fluted root and weighed nothing. With only a couple of months turning pens under my belt, I told him that this root may turn to dust. He said go for it. I was able to bandsaw his moms info from the root and salvage that much in case of wood failure on the lathe. I was able to get a 5 x3/4 blank from the remaining piece. I was turning a slimline style and noticed that about 90% turned down that the wood was extremely soft and friable. I put a coat of medium CA w/accelerator and was able to cut it almost to finished size then I applied a second coat of medium CA and was able to complete the project with no issues. I put a total of 8 coats on and finished with high gloss polish. I brought it to him, but first I said good news/bad news and showed him a ziplock with about 12 pieces of the root:eek:. He immediately said, "did it explode". I said I was able to save your mom's info and BTW here is the last piece which was the finished pen. He could not believe that pen came from the root. Needless to say he was a very happy camper. CA can cure a lot of issues.:)

Rodney

Thanks for the comments Rodney! After you telling me about that root, I was hoping to see a picture of that pen! :)

[Jim Burr]

That was worth saving Billy!! Had to go wrong with spalted anything!