Penmaking

[Ted Owen]

I see from the Hut catalog that they sell stabilized and unstabilized pen blank material. What is the importance of stabilized? Can't you just turn scraps or cutoffs for pens?

Best, Ted

[Michael Cody]

I see from the Hut catalog that they sell stabilized and unstabilized pen blank material. What is the importance of stabilized? Can't you just turn scraps or cutoffs for pens?


Stabilized material has been impregnated with polyester resins to help it hold together better. This is a pretty good thing for some of the more fragile burl & spalted materials. It also results in a smoother high gloss finish on the pen. I personally prefer stabilized material and use it more than anything else. It turns more like plastic than wood, but has shavings instead of strips like turning acrylics.

Stabilized material does take oil and finish almost like wood too so in that way it's better than manmade materials.

Stabilizing is not a requirement of course, the majority of pens are probably turned out normal wood, shop scraps etc.. I do that all the time too. But you can make some unbelievable pens out of some of the stabilized material.

One other downside of course is the cost of stabilized material .. once catch and you screw up a 3-7$ blank .. can be a pain. But once you get good at it.. you have a lot less chance of ruining a heavily spalted piece of buckeye burl if it's stabilized vs non-stabilized... so it evens out.

Go ahead and make those beautiful pens out of shop scraps .. it's fine, but try some of the outstanding stabilized stuff out there.. it's some awesome wood. Check out the following link, I am not affiliated with him but I have bought a lot of blanks.. his stuff is amazing and he's great to deal with.

Arizona Silhouette (http://www.arizonasilhouette.com)

[Ted Owen]

Stabilized material has been impregnated with polyester resins...

Thanks, Mike. I have ordered some burls from Berea, but they are not stabilized. Should I try to stabilize myself them before turning? Or is that done under pressure or heat or some such?

Best, Ted

[Ken Salisbury]

Thanks, Mike. I have ordered some burls from Berea, but they are not stabilized. Should I try to stabilize myself them before turning? Or is that done under pressure or heat or some such?

Best, Ted

The burls from Berea are already resin impregnated (stabilized) should be ready for use.

[Michael Cody]

Thanks, Mike. I have ordered some burls from Berea, but they are not stabilized. Should I try to stabilize myself them before turning? Or is that done under pressure or heat or some such?


I wouldn't bother trying anything other than CA glue. A lot of Berea's stuff is already stabilized as Ken said ... if it's not though then I usually soak in the thin CA if I am having a problem getting a good smooth cut. Other choices are the good old 80grit gouge or other folks I know will soak the blank in MinWax wood hardener until is sinks to the bottom of a jar ... I think Bill Grumbine has detailed that process before. I've not tried that one.

If the piece turns good and you get a good finish, no reason to stabilize it.. only thing I will mention is that for a non-stabilized piece I am looking for a great wet-shine type finish on, I use a CA finish by soaking it repeatedly with thin CA (4-5 times) then soak in 2-3 coats of Watco or BLO, then putting 2 coats of med CA on it ... it looks like hell when you get done, but when you sand it down, it's a nice hard shiney surface - almost plastic in smoothness but you still get that deep wood shine w/o the plastic look you would see on a manmade material pen.

I then sand to 600g w/ wet-dry paper, finish with 2-3 coats of Hi-Gloss Deft (my favorite finish for pens) as a friction polish -- and finish polishing with MicroMesh through 12000 finishing with 2-3 coats of Hut's crystal coat buffed w/craft paper.

If you have a stabilized piece you can skip the first 4-5 coats of thin CA ... and get away with only one coat of Med CA -- still getting the same finish.

Either way, it will take a hour or so do a pen, but the end result is worth it to me. I don't do this kind of finish on production pieces, IE for a show or batch order, unless I am charging extra. I am not in Ken's 10 minute class for speed, but I can turn out a nice pen in 20 ... but when I am charging 75-100$ for top end one-of-a-kind type unit, I put in the extra time!

[Michael Cody]

Thanks, Mike. I have ordered some burls from Berea, but they are not stabilized. Should I try to stabilize myself them before turning? Or is that done under pressure or heat or some such?

Forgot the other part of the question...

Stabilizing is a heat/vacuum process. I don't know the exact step-by-step process, but it's not home DIY type process. I know that Bill Baumbeck @ Arizona Silhouette will send your pieces with his to be stabilized for a very reasonable rate... I did that with some cherry & birch burls I got from up north in MI ... they were beautiful, spalted and almost rotten -- a recipe for disaster w/o stabilization.. I cut them into blanks, dryed them and sent them to him .. he charged me by the pound, took 6-7 weeks to get them back but the results were phenomenal. He only sends them in w/his own orders and you have to mark them too ... He told me to use those Liquid Paper pens to mark the blanks, it's the perfect item for marking pen blanks. Works like a charm -and lasts through stabilization believe it or not.

[Ted Owen]

Thanks, guys. Michael, I've printed out your finishing procedure for future reference. Thanks.

Best, Ted

[Scott Greaves]

Hey Ted!

Wow! Michael pretty much said everything I could come up with on the subject! Great job Michael!

I love to use stabilized woods for pens. And as suggested, Bill Baumbeck has great stabilized woods! Stabilizing allows you to use woods that would be unfit for turning otherwise. I have made some pens from crosscut spalted alder that would just crumble in your hands if it weren't stabilized. You just can't believe how nice it is until you try it!

That being said, I still make pens from wood. Why limit yourself! For all intents and purposes, if you can slap it on a lathe and turn it, you can make a pen from it! I like working with some of the plastics, and am now dabbling in polymer clays! If you're careful, aluminum can be turned on a wood lathe. Trying different things is what keeps penturning fun!

Have fun!

Scott.

[Ernie Kuhn]

Michael,
Thank you so much. I just did the same thing Ted did. Its printed out and will be taped next to the lathe. Can't wait to give your "system" a try, especially for the Christmas gift pens. Thanks again.