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buckeye pens

I've done a couple pens. It seems simple enough but the other day I realized that I have this little piece of buckey burl that is not a shape I would consider using for a bowll. I took a couple slices and cut some pen blanks.

This morning I tried one and noticed a couple things. Buckeye seems to suffer tearout. This in itself should not be a problem I just needed to stop earlier and sand the rest of the way. Then before I stopped with the chisel a big piece broke off.

So much for that attempt....I decided to experiment with ways of holding the buckeye together before I cleaned off the brass tubes and took out a piece of cherry to make the pen with.

I tried coating the buckeye with CA glue then turning it (mainly because I had the CA glue handy). It seemed to work but I'm not sure how deep it penitrates into the wood to strengthen it against tearout or breaking.

I've seen 'stabilized buckeye' for sale on the net but if you already have the wood how do you stabilize it yourself?

Reply to
william kossack
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Quite common with the dry buckeye burls. They're soft and light. Take very steep shearing cuts and it'll help. Not eliminate the problem but it'll help.

The really thin CA will penetrate fairly far in this wood. What I do in this type of situation is to turn it pretty close to final (maybe 2 very light, finish, cutting passes away) and really soak the piece. To get better penetration, you can use a thinned finish of something like a polyurethane or lacquer and soak it for many minutes to hours in a small tray of the stuff. There are also penetrating wood conditioners (Minwax makes one I believe) that are designed to be used on wooden window sills, etc. Soak it in that and it'll penetrate quite far. The commercially sold dry buckeye burl is, normally, quite starved for moisture and is very porous so it'll readily soak up whatever you give it. I don't soak a piece in CA unless I intend to either finish in CA (which, in my opinion at least, isn't pretty) or spray with Lacquer. No penetrating finishes or oils, etc. But experiment with this yourself and see what you like.

You'll not be able to easily or cheaply do what those commercial guys do here. But, if you have a vacuum system (either for the lathe or for veneer, etc.), then you can experiment. Frankly, it's not really worth it unless you have a huge need for it. The line of thought you had above about soaking the wood will do about as well and far easier, cheaper, and faster than trying to make "stabilized wood" pieces like the big boys.

- Andrew

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AHilton

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Don Stephens

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