Best way to work with Cellulose acetate ?

[Lancelot]

Hi all,

i have some very nice Green lizzard cellulose acetate blanks and i was wondering of the best way to turn and use this material as i have never made anything with it yet.
I don' want to destroy the rod because I used the wrong glue ? ie five min resin or CA ?
Same for polishing it doesn't need aggressive cutting compounds i guess but what polish should i use ?? I have Yorkshire grit and some auto glym resin polish that works great on acrylics but how about Cellulose ??
i really dont want to destroy these beautiful rods that are nearly 100 years old.

any advice is most welcome thanks

Lance

 

[Lancelot]

A couple of pics and you will see why I want to get these rods perfect ;-)

 

[ValleyBoy]

I’ve made quite a lot of pens from this stuff and you may have noticed that the material is actually wrapped like a helix. A bit like the inner if a toilet roll. I only mention that because you can sometimes see those seam lines in the finished pen. Nothing to worry about but just so you know they’re there.
I tend to treat them like acrylic but maybe start with a higher grit sandpaper than usual. I use buffing wheels with tripoli and white for the final polish, but I know many in here use Yorkshire grit or equivalent.
Cheers
Ash

 

[Lancelot]

Thanks Ash,

Yeh I looked into how they made the design and it is indeed wrapped. They made a blue and red version but that's hard to come by now i think. I do like these blanks and the other versions of it. I have used automotive polishes on acrylic that's a two part finish like a repair and Polish kit. I don't know if autoglym or tcut would do it any harm ?? Apart from heat, seen some cellulose get ruined because of heat buildup.
Do you have any pics of the ones you've done Ash ? I do love your work too as whe. I googled erinoid pens some of your work pops up. It's inspiring work you do Ash so any advise is always greatly received and I don't mind criticism, after all it's what we learn from.

L