Thread: Purple Gidgee Blingless Harvest

Beautiful Neil!

Yes Neil, that is the whole idea of the blingless kit, make it more of a work of art, and you did that very well, Amos

Very nice indeed Neil, and after your other post today I am sure this will remain a very special pen.

Dallas

Originally Posted by Treecycle

Very nice indeed Neil, and after your other post today I am sure this will remain a very special pen.

Dallas

Very true. IT wasn't long after I posted this thread when I was told he had died

Wow!

Great result Neil - stunning blanks.

Allan

Hi mate one of your very best dont remember seeing a strip on the clip by anyone before very tricky IMHO bringing the top higher a masterstroke exciting timber as well.

Peter.

I have one of these kits sitting in a drawer in the shed,so I can well imagine the work that has gone into this one to present it like this.
Very nice work Neil, it's a special pen, in more ways than one.

Lovely pen. I think it's worth the effort although I don't think I would want to go to this effort often! What did you use as a finish Neil? I would have said superglue from the pictures but the fiddly bits would be difficult to finish with cyanoacrylate.

Poly?

All finished with CA. All but the slither with 3 thin and 6 thick layers before xxxx steel wool, eee then plastic polish. The slither got 3 thin then a few thick layers "balanced" on top sanding with xxxx steel wool between, then eee/plastic polish as per the others.

That is a serious amount of work and care. It makes the pen even more awesome. Great job!

Another question. Is the timber Purple gidgee (Acacia Crombiei) or Dead finish (Acacia carneorum)? I don't know either timber well enough to tell. Whatever it is, it is very pretty.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Whist cutting some of my Purple Gidgee (Acacia carneorum) I got these pen blanks from the scraps.
purple gidgee flame.jpg

Decided to make a special pen out of them, so decided to give a Blingless Harvest (from Timberbits) a go. Actually all the little fiddly bits are a real pain to make, especially the clip slither that has to be had shaped, hand sanded then hand finished. The colour is more purple than shown and will go a darker purple in time.
pg2.jpg pg1.jpg pg3.jpg pg4.jpg

pg5.jpg

Ended up turning a fair bit of the blanks and bits on Gawdelpus's (John) metal lathe with his help to ensure accurate sizes as his lathe has the digital read outs.

Beautiful work!!

Just a question or comment. Purple gidgee usually refers to the wesetrn Qld species (Acacia crombei) whereas the other species (carneorum) is a smaller NSW / SA species. Its heartwood is always a bright purple, even when freshly cut. It is brighter purple too,

Edit: Oops ... just saw your post Graeme... sorry

!!!

What an absolute stunner!!!

Originally Posted by bookend

Another question. Is the timber Purple gidgee (Acacia Crombiei) or Dead finish (Acacia carneorum)?..

Originally Posted by Euge

..Purple gidgee usually refers to the wesetrn Qld species (Acacia crombei) whereas the other species (carneorum) is a smaller NSW / SA species. Its heartwood is always a bright purple, even when freshly cut. It is brighter purple too...

Aaahhhh common names, what a pain. To my knowledge this is Acacia carneorum (previously known as Acacia carnei) that is a rare and endangered species. It goes under the common names of Purple Gidgee, Purple Wood Wattle, Dead Finish, Needle Wattle etc etc. When cut it is greeny brown and turns a dark purple in sunlight but then stays that way. I've never seen the trunks >200mm dia. The photos above don't show it well but the colour is a dark purple but has yellowish swirls that are 3D thus giving the beautiful chatoyance effect

Acacia combie I know as Pink Gidgee. It has a typical gidgee browny coloured heartwood, but has a bright pink/purple ring just under the light sapwood, but not purple all the way nor does it change colour when you cut it.
trinket1.JPG

There are a lot of Dead Finishes too, the best also known as Red Lancewood is Archidendropsis basaltica that is brown/black/red/purple swirls and tinges to it
vase v1.jpg

Neil, Crombeii will change colour to full purple if left in the sun long enough.