Turning Pens. Stabilize or Not??

[Matt Mackinnon]

4-5 years ago I got into turning pens and it was great fun. I had a small General midi lathe and it was a great way to pass the time. When I moved, I sold my lathe and have since bought a much larger OneWay. I have invested in a whole array of interesting woods from all over the world with quite a bit of burls and exotics. I also invested in turning between centers and have the CNC turned bushings made. I have had in the past times when turning that the the wood (burl) just blew out. might have been a catch, but could have been a screw up on my end.

I am getting back into the pen game again as I have found new relatives in the UK and they all want a pen, and it seems their friends to too and are willing to pay good money to get interesting wood.

I have invested in a vacuum chamber and a pressure pot and now can stabilize and cast pens too. I am wondering for all my pens if it is worth stabilizing them all before turning. The thought that these are now being sold and the last thing I would want is for a pen to crack as you generally turn the wood to essentially a thin veneer around the brass tube. Will adding cactus juice help increase the strength of the pen to withstand more abuse (like getting dropped) or am I fooling myself?

Thanks for any advice that can be given.

Matt

[Dale Winburn]

I turn a lot of pens using many types of wood including "Stonewall" Jackson Prayer Tree white oak. After turning the pens to size and sanding to 1000 grit I flood the pen with 2 or 3 coats of thin CA glue with the lathe turning at a slow rpm. This fills all the pores and imperfections. Sometime it may take 1 or 2 coats of medium CA glue to fill larger imperfections. After the glue cures overnight I will sand to 2000 grit and then finish the pen.

This process works well for me.

[Matt Mackinnon]

In the past I have done the turn and then use CA as a finish. I however wonder if this is not just a surface coating rather than an integral part of the wood in the pen? I have had CA failure, where a small part of the coating has chipped or fallen off. It was perfect when I had finished it, but a week later coming out of a presentation folder, there is a chip or missing bit on the CA finish.

Is just coating with CA the given finishing method? I guess I should be asking this on a more specific forum to PenTurning.

[Doug W Swanson]

I would stabilize softer, punky wood, and burls. I don't think there is any need to stabilize dense wood like Ebony, Purple Heart, Rosewood, etc. Most of the exotic woods are hard enough that they don't need to be stabilized.

That's just my opinion :)

[Grant Wilkinson]

I've not done a great deal of stabilizing, but I did try some burls and punky pecan when I was doing pens. For those woods, it made sense, as turning them was going to be impossible otherwise. However, they do become very brittle; at least in my limited experience. So, they don't crack, and they don't fly apart when turning them, but drop them and they shatter - not all the time of course, but what you have when you're done stabilizing them is a very thin piece of plastic. It's resistance to shattering will depend somewhat on the product you are using to stabilize them. Some plastics are more brittle than others, as you know. Some of your blanks will be more brittle than others. It not only depends on the stabilizing medium, but on how much of the final blank is wood and how much is plastic.

I'm sure that Dave knows far more about this than I do, and this is only based on my limited experience. I couldn't justify the cost/benefit is most cases.

[Dan Hintz]

I would stabilize softer, punky wood, and burls. I don't think there is any need to stabilize dense wood like Ebony, Purple Heart, Rosewood, etc. Most of the exotic woods are hard enough that they don't need to be stabilized.

That's just my opinion :)

This ^^^. So many want to stabilize because that's what the crowd is doing... but it's wholly unnecessary for most woods. Many often include burls in that mix, thinking unoriented grain is synonymous to "weak". Stabilize only when the wood will not support standard turning or you wish to permanently colorize.

[robert baccus]

It appears to me that any pen blank that needed help would be fine with just a shot or two of very thin CA. It goes where it is needed in soft woods.

[Dan Hintz]

It appears to me that any pen blank that needed help would be fine with just a shot or two of very thin CA. It goes where it is needed in soft woods.

So this pen was very soft. I soaked it in thin CA until it wouldn't take any more... and then I saw smoke. It burned the inside of the blank a sweet yellow, and it ended up looking quite nice, IMO. It went to a client's wife who loved Gaelic stuff...

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