Thread: resin or not

If you want to "blacken" a brass pen tube one way is to heat it up until it just starts to glow a dull red. This both anneals (softens) the brass and heavily oxidises it giving it a very dark brown colour. The snag is that the tubes are really thin so it doesn't take long to go from shiny brass through almost red brass to woops it melted

Use a bit of coat hanger type wire to hold the tube in a flame, ideally a small-ish blow torch like a Primus, or maybe a camp stove. As soon as it starts to glow take it off the heat but don't quench or you will lose some of the oxide coating.

The tube will unfortunately be a fair bit softer and won't take being pressed into the wooden blank with any real force so make sure the hole through the blank is slightly larger than normal.

As for putting resin on the banksia prior to turning, I must admit I'm not 100% sure what you're referring to here. My finishes for soft materials is simply CA (cyanacrylate adhesive or superglue) liberally applied in layers and allowed to soak in prior to polishing with 2000 and 4000 grit Abralon. I usually then hit with EEE and a friction polish, but if you're keeping the banksia voids open then I guess you'll have to stop at the CA. The glue outs a good hard outer layer on the material that allows normal use and handling.

You did well to drill and turn without filling the holes ,apart from colored acrylic or colored epoxy ,another way that I have used to fill the holes is acrylic putty from the paint shops or large hardware shops ,still best to do a CA finish of choice to strengthen and hold it altogether , cheers ~ John

Howdy doody Bob

i have done a few banksia nut pens, as yet none with resin but i do like the resin ones that i have seen neil and john turn out

i drill and glue the tubes in with out worrying about the holes or blackening the brass tubes
turn down to the hard as hells bit of wood in the middle and clear away all the rubbish from the lathe and work space so that you can collect all the hard shavings
i then turn to a bit bigger than finished size and collect the shavings, by placing the shavings in the palm of your hand and grinding between the fingers on your other hand you get a fantabulous(i bet thats not in a spell checker) powder.
i then fill a hole with the powder and put drop of CA on top of the powder, one hole at a time can be tedious but i reckon it comes up real good, keep the rest of the shavings as well they come in handy for filling all sorts of holes, especially buckeye burl
i then turn and sand as per normal once the CA has set

i hope this helps
MIK

Hey gents
Thanks for the replies between the three of you you have covered the issue well.
My initial thoughts were that it would not hold together for turning without filling voids, as John has suggested but was no problem to turn, quite hard in centre. Once I had it roughed down I applied CA at frequent intervals and then applied liberal amounts on finishing,
I can see how blackening by heat would work but seems to create some issues, could you use something simpler like permanent marker?
MIK I think I will try your suggestion of using dust to fill voids sounds like simple solution.
I only had the one of the banksia that I had picked up some where but while walking dog yesterday I found several trees so am keen to try some more.
Cheers for help fellas!

The best way to blacken the tubes as was suggested here by some one was to roughen them up with sand paper then paint them with nail polish with your colour of choice. I always only glue up my blanks with 15 minute epoxy I buy from Gary Pye. I've had too many failures with CA

The only problem with that is when you go into the chemist to buy the nail polish the lady assistants give you a funny look and wonder what you are doing with it.

I use Black Patina, used by my wife for her leadlight work. Not only does it blacken the brass very nicely (and quickly, it leaves a slightly etched surface ideal for the glue.

Just dip the brass tubes in the bottle till they trurn black, leave to dry (or dry with hair driyer) and you are ready to glue.

Oh almost forgot, good looking bullet pen Baldone

Great job on the pen!!!

Personally I don't mind seeing the tube through that Banksia.

Now I think the idea of nail polish sounds a good way to blacken tube might even have some left from my GOTH days BigShed I'm not familiar with black patina?
Artme the pen is not quite as Id like (do better next time) but I was happy to have it all stay together and like you I dont mind the brass showing on this pen as it goes OK with cartridge. However might want to hide brass tube if used with other timber or full banksia pen.
Thanks for advice gents

Great effort on the pen

Did you use any thin CA to stabilize the banksia? If not, it can dissintergrate over time, unless you were lucky enough to get all wood and none of the black hairy/flakey stuff.

As for filling the holes, your choices are endless. Certainly coloured or clear resins (or thick CA). Then there are powders set with thin CA (coffee grinds, malachite, torquoise, brass, copper, aluminium etc). Even wood fillers works Ok.

I use "Brass Black" to blacken my tubes, available from gun shops and probably Blackmores etc. Sounds similar to the Black Patina mentioned.

Cheers

Cheers on information