Thread: Tree Fern Sierra

A very Beautiful Result, well worth the effort.
Cheers Tony.

Sometimes you have to go that extra mile or so in search of a great result ,that is a much travelled well worked piece of timber ,makes it something special to keep and showoff a bit Well done cheers ~ John

very nice looks something differnce, wonder if SWMBO would miss her fern tree

Thanks for sharing your experience with technique and patience with this pen. Us novices in pen turning really relish bits of information as it all ads to the enjoyment of the craft.

Very nice well done

Pity the fern tree was not red and black

Certainly looks like it was worth the effort

I still have to do something with those off-cuts .

ps you left that biro pen at my place

G'day Wood Hacker,

Sounds like a complicated process but an excellent result.


Ady

Great result there WH!!

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Certainly looks like it was worth the effort

I still have to do something with those off-cuts .

ps you left that biro pen at my place

Thanks Neil. If you're going to be at the show on the Sat bring it along and I'll grab it off you then.

I was a bit disappointed that the really white sections of the timber went a bit yellow with the Ca finish and I lost that really great contrast with the brown but overall not to shabby I think.

I wonder if the white went yellowish because of sanding, I have had that problem with Laser Cut blanks, in particular the Piano blanks where you have white Holly and Ebony for black, if any one can suggest a way around this it would be helpful for you and me and a host of others.
The contrasting grain looks very spectacular, great balnk and pen. Amos

Originally Posted by Woodenink

I wonder if the white went yellowish because of sanding, I have had that problem with Laser Cut blanks, in particular the Piano blanks where you have white Holly and Ebony for black, if any one can suggest a way around this it would be helpful for you and me and a host of others.
The contrasting grain looks very spectacular, great balnk and pen. Amos

With the piano blanks in particular the advice is no sanding at all to avoid the problem , I do a very light scrape with a side on sharp skew for final finishing ,then a quick coat of thin CA to seal it , I always do the CA finish on any of the lazer kits ,another thing I found with those is that sometimes the laser lines between the keys can be taken right out , I tend to leave the shape in a slight curve to avoid this cheers John

Originally Posted by Woodenink

I wonder if the white went yellowish because of sanding, I have had that problem with Laser Cut blanks, in particular the Piano blanks where you have white Holly and Ebony for black, if any one can suggest a way around this it would be helpful for you and me and a host of others.
The contrasting grain looks very spectacular, great balnk and pen. Amos

I think you may be on to something there Amos. Although the white sections did yellow / darken when I stabilized with CA during turning it was only after sanding that the colour change was really pronounced. Might try Johns trick for the next one.

Many of the light timbers I use react to CA unfortunately turning them yellow, or darker. Can't say sanding or not sanding makes much difference, you may just notice it more after sanding as the grain is flattened. Very hard to avoid if you need to stabilise as well.

I'll try stabilizing my peices with the milky wood hardener instead of CA and see if that helps. I know with my bonewood the CA makes it go yellow and I found clear boot polish works best as a finish.

cheers

Sounds like more good advice, I too found that you have to allow the body of the piano pens to be bigger than the ends, ie taper to the end , so that you don't loose the definition of the lines. Amos