Thread: drying blanks in methylated spirits

Might be worth a try on some of my "burl" blanks ,I have stopped making them as pens at this time as the only failures I have had so far with cracking up or lifting is with burls, not straight away but usually after a few weeks, very annoying ,so far I have been able to repair ok, but not sure of some that may be out in the community already . I don't think my el-cheapo moisture meter is all that accurate either . Cheers ~ John

i've got a heap of red mallee there that i can test it on. I have only made one recently, didn't do the metho dip, and it cracked. Filled that one with glitter powder and resin today and it seems ok. So i might try another one with the mallee and metho dipping to see if it makes a difference. If i get the time i'll do the proper scientific thing and weigh them as i go.

Can't remember whether i posted a thread or replied to one, It may have been a year or so back but had some green Red Mallee soaked it on the on a day off, didn't get back to them the following week, Put them in a paper bag and left them for another 2 weeks and there was no noticable shrinkage loss in the blanks and showed no sign of movement after they were turned.

so the progress so far is this. Solomon ebony blanks had slight shrinkage which i will ream out again after a couple of days of letting them sit. Australian ebony had practically no movement at all, leading me to think it was probably drier than i first believed. Next test is a red mallee burl blank which i'll do this afternoon. Stay tuned

ok so no luck so far with mallee. Haven't had time to do one but i'll report when i do.

I did however have two failures with solomon ebony, with 2 successes also. I think the two that failed may have actually been too dry as a result of the metho dipping. Despite having sharp tools they cracked very early in the turning process. It's worth noting that these 2 blanks had been sitting in the garage for nearly 6 months whereas the ones that worked out were from more recently cut stock.

Australian ebony came out beautifully as did the other two pieces of solomon. I've left all three pieces now on the tubes and will check on them in a few weeks.

The two blanks that failed were already fairly dry and i think the metho may have turned them a bit brittle. Like i said, they'd already been sitting for a while. I think i'm going to need a moisture metre to take this experiment to the next level.

Interesting stuff, I didn't know we had "ebony" in AU , except the very hard and dark red "Cooktown ebony" ? . I guess the splitting could also depend on the thickness of material you have left after turning and sanding ,larger kits seem to have thinner wall thickness of material ,probably for weight considerations , seem to have a good amount of wood or acrylic on things like comfort pens or the "Aussie " type pens ,cheers ~ John

indeed we do have a native ebony. Very similar to african. Much smaller heartwood though.

I know what you mean about some kits having less timber on. In this case, they were both sierras but they both split well before i was close to bushing size. I was careful in my turning approach but they just seemed very brittle. Anyone who has turned solomon ebony would know it's quite a good turning timber, and i've not had any trouble turning it before.

I've started a new pen from the same, hopefully dry stock. It's drying now from my first lacquer dipping experience. If it works then i think that'll prove the timber from that pile was already dry, and my metho treating made it worse. Stay tuned for pics.