• January Turning Challenge: Thin-Stemmed Something! (click here for details)
  • Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Gabriel Hoff for "Spalted Beech Round Bottom Box" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 6, 2024 (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.

Pencil Marks

F

Frank Kobilsek

Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
286
Likes
4
Location
Mendota IL
Somebody Help! I textured a walnut piece Monday morning and now I can't seem to get the remaining pencil marks off. I think from Molly Winton or Betty Scarpino I learned to scrub with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol but that hasn't worked. IPA worked on the cherry piece before this one but not on the walnut. The texture is very fine and soft so I don't want to use sandpaper. I even got out the big Pink Pearl with marginal results. Open to ideas.
Thanks
Frank
 
Frank,
I carve or sand every pencil line away.
not easy to do.

Al Stirt uses a water color pencil for layout lines. You need to seal the wood unless it it has a painted surface. This works best for me if I seal the wood with sanding sealer or a thin shellac.

after the carving a damp cloth removes the water color.
-Al
 
Ordinary black pencils contain graphite which get imbedded in the grain of the wood and is not soluble in alcohol nor anything else for that matter. I have some colored pencils that leave a very light blue mark that can be easily removed by erasing, sanding, water, alcohol, and probably many other ways.
 
Another advantage of colored pencils: They allow selection of better contrast with the wood color, e.g. green vs. red (say cedar or cherry) is more visible than black vs. brown (such as walnut). Even if you're color-blind, probably.
 
Thanks guys, Al your plan is/was my plan. After further inspection last night with magnifying glass I found that in my effort to carve away pencil lines I had made slightly different texture that in certain areas of the grain look like pencil lines, I think. None the less there is finsih now on the piece and my wife says there are no pencil lines, I still see something.

I need to find some colored pencils.

Happy Fourth

Frank
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top