• Thanks for visiting The Penturners Forum today.

    There are many features and resources that currently you are unable to see or access, either because you're not yet registered, or if you're already registered, because you're not logged in.

    To gain full access to the forum, please log in or register now. Registration is completely free, it only takes a few seconds, and you can join our well established community of like-minded pen makers.

Reply to thread

Hi, folks,

During my other hobby, metal detecting, I often pick up maize cobs (grown by farmers as cattle feed, as opposed to sweetcorn which is what we eat) and take them home to dry out. They can be up to a foot long, and quite thick. [ATTACH]1720[/ATTACH][ATTACH]1721[/ATTACH]Takes about a year before putting a chisel on them. I say chisel but, because there's a lot of pith, (which is inclined to bust out, leaving you with a bare tube!) once I reach a certain thinness I change to coarse grit sandpaper to reduce it to the required profile. (Dust mask needed!!!) I finish with 240-grit, and then pick out/dust out the debris from those holes where the maize used to be. Use a cocktail stick or dental pick. Finally, it's a few coats of BLO/CA - I don't believe a polish-only coating is sufficient - the husk needs hardening to become resilient enough for use.

Regards,

Bob.

Usual apologies for poor quality scans!


Top