Turning spalted woods

[Gizmo3k]

Hi,

A friend of mine wants two pencils made - the thick workshop ones. He has also chosen and purchased the pen blanks for them - Stabilised Spalted Tiger Oak.

Given I only have the two blanks to play with, anyone know what I can expect from turning these? Don't really want to make a mess of them, given the cost!

The kit itself doesn't seem to be too bad to make, think I have a spare one at home anyway, so might make myself one first!

Thanks

Alan

 

[rayf6604]

See if the ends of the blank look very dry and potential for crumbling. If so then flood the ends with super thin ca glue. Watch your fingers though, it wicks all over the place, but it will firm up any dry crumbly ends.

 

[bellringer]

Seeing as it stabilised it should be fine

 

[nimrod]

Hi Alan
I stabilise various types of wood and turn them without any problems, just ensure you use sharp tools.

Robin

 

[Buckeye]

If it is stabilised then there should be no problem, make sure your tools are as sharp as they can be.

Peter

 

[paulm]

As Peter says. Stabilising should make it more like turning acrylic than wood although I wouldn't expect tiger oak to need stabilising unless it was well and truly rotten.

 

[chas_41_uk]

As previously said, if it is stabilised then it should be fine, just make sure your tools are good and sharp

 

[Gizmo3k]

Thanks for the reassurance!

Oh, I missed 'Burl' from the description too - he decided he wanted some of these:

Premium Stabilized Spalted Tiger Oak Burl 5 x 3/4 x 3/4 Pen Blank from Barry Gross

Ah well, should look good at the end I suppose!

 

[paulm]

They'll look very nice but in my opinion thats not a burr (burl american)