• January Turning Challenge: Thin-Stemmed Something! (click here for details)
  • Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to John Lucas for "Lost and Found" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 13, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

How do you finish this composite blank?

G

Gary Slater

Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Messages
39
Likes
0
I got a pen blank from Bear Tooth Woods which is a combination of a burl slab on one side/half of the blank with the rest of the blank volume filled with swirled red acrylic resin (they also have it in blue). I have a way to finish wood pens and a different way to finish acrylic, neither way has any thing in common. Does anyone have an method for a durable finish on these? Please don't say CA glue! The blank I have promises to make a beautiful pen. I have attached a picture of a different blank.
 

Attachments

  • zRedTide_29.jpg
    zRedTide_29.jpg
    56 KB · Views: 86
No Luck CA/BLO

I have tried the CA/BLO finish and didn't get good results. I have read detailed instructions and followed video steps I have found on line but really failed badly at applying this finish. Ernie, who is at Bear Tooth and is a really good guy, also suggested the CA/BLO, but I just don't know. I don't want to ruin this blank, it's too beautiful!
 
Steve Worcester said:
buff it with white diamond and carnuaba.
Click to expand...

Steve, I use the Beall system on bowls, boxes and vases since they don't get handled much. But a pen? Doesn't seem like it would be very durable with all the handling a pen gets. Is there something I am missing?
 
Gary Slater said:
I have tried the CA/BLO finish and didn't get good results. I have read detailed instructions and followed video steps I have found on line but really failed badly at applying this finish. Ernie, who is at Bear Tooth and is a really good guy, also suggested the CA/BLO, but I just don't know. I don't want to ruin this blank, it's too beautiful!
Click to expand...

I only use thin CA on my pens. The CA/BLO method always gave me inconsistent results. I just never got the hang of it. Now I just put a few drops of thin CA on a Q-Tip which I've pulled the cotton apart slightly. Give it a coat, then a light sanding with @600grit. Repeat this 6-8 times. At this point you could give it a white diamond buff or a progressive polishing with micro-mesh up to 12000, then a light diamond buffing and you'll get a beautiful, durable finish.

Being that your blank is part composite, part wood, if you just buff via the Beall System, the pen will show uneven wear after some use. The composite will still look good while the real wood part will look flat.
 
Gary Slater said:
Steve, I use the Beall system on bowls, boxes and vases since they don't get handled much. But a pen? Doesn't seem like it would be very durable with all the handling a pen gets. Is there something I am missing?
Click to expand...

If is is stabilized you are polishing the polymers with the wax as an abrasive. If it isn't stabilized, you are polishing the wood and resin, so the resin will stay shiny and the wood will go back to the skin oils dull finish.
 
if it is just cast resins, i.e. not a slow cure "resin" in a pressurized or vacuum environment, then the wood is not impregnated with the resins. So it would only polish up like wood will. That is where the CA comes in. It will penetrate the surface an allow you to build up a solid finish that is "polishable".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top