Stocking Up on Wood Blanks

So Cook Woods had a sale (famous last words). I couldn't resist stocking up on some tropical hardwoods. My rough plan is to make razor scale blanks off of one half of the 2x2x12 blanks, and turn brushes off the other half, and hopefully end up with some matched sets.

From left to right: Black and White Ebony, Bhilwara, Bocote and Bolivian Rosewood.
Attachment 322239
I've been drooling over their B/W Ebony especially for a long time. I may try to see what I can spin from it this evening. Once I have some scraps for stacking, I have seen some brushes with contrasting rosewood/cocobolo/bocote with various ebonies that are just stunning-I look forward to trying that too.

Speaking of stacking, do you turners just cut and square up your pieces, and then epoxy them together?

One of my guiding philosophies in life is, if I fear something, I do it so that I have one less thing to fear. With that in mind, I threw caution to the wind and centered/chucked up a chunk of that ebony with a rough design in mind (knowing that the sensible thing to do would have been to practice on a few more pieces of poplar, but where's the fun in that?). Funny how that redheart was soft as butter, whereas this ebony is much harder and higher on the Janka scale (especially the black parts are much harder, which makes it kind of tricky). Nevertheless, I got it round pretty easily.Drilling out the recess took a minute-I kept having to stop and let things cool. I'll probably have to sharpen that bit tomorrow.
Attachment 322257
Taking a break while I re-sharpen my tools and stew on it a bit. I'm quickly finding that the Holy Grail of turning skills for me right now is chasing those blasted lines out of my coves especially. I'm hoping that my all-day class in a couple of weeks will help with that. I may go back to it tonight, or maybe sleep on it. :hmmm:
Attachment 322258
As you can see, it's wanting to chip where the black runs out. That white part under it is soft as particle boards, I swear. Maybe I should have tried pure black ebony instead. Oh, well, I'll fix it in the morning (I hope).
I'll post the finished piece if I don't screw it up.

Your pics didnt post up Aaron.

I fixed it-at least they show up on my end.

Yep, they're showing now. Beautiful angles to that piece

Looks good..Maybe you can fill the chipped parts when finished ?

The B&W ebony makes some nice scales, Aaron.

The blocks I picked up were stabilized...yours.?

Attachment 322269

No finish needed, just sand to high grit and polish.

Yeah, Mike, that pair of beauties you posted is what originally put me on the scent of this bewitching, beautiful wood. And no, CookWoods doesn't do stabilizing, so these are not stabilized. I actually have a stabilizing tank and vacum pump that I got in a trade, but still haven't used. At this point, I will probably have to sell plasma to save up for the hundred dollars a gallon of the Cactus Juice resin costs; the lathe truly is the cheapest part of turning-I was warned. Anyway, I would think woods as dense as ebony would be hard to get them to take up the resin (at least that's what I've heard).

I sort of had in mind for a finish a friction polish of a beeswax and BLO mixture I have on hand.

And Joseph-Thanks for the tip. I hope I don't have to try that. I imagine a post-turn repair like that would be a neon sign flashing "You screwed up." About to go out and see what I can to smooth it out.

Very nice shape Aaron.

So I finished it, I guess. Here it is on the lathe, sanded to 600 before I parted it and flipped it around to finish off the bottom:
Attachment 322280
I managed to get out all but the faintest lines-still working on that. You can see the crack on the rim at the bottom-it looks much worse blown up in a photo than in person. I then turned in about 8 coats of BLO/beeswax mixture as a friction polish and burnished it in with an old t-shirt at about 2000 rpm. Those orange spots are not chips, just where I worked it below the black part. It took on a nice semi-gloss glow exactly like I wanted.
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Overall, I'm pleased considering it's my 3rd brush. My rounds need to be more round, and the bottom grip is too wide. The ebony is a joy to work, as advertised, though the transition between colors/grains was tricky and led to some chips and "redesigns"-there were actually some voids behind the black that seemed to be filled with orange sawdust-never seen that!

I may try Tin-Tin's face-plate/dowel technique next time. The 20mm jaws ride a fine line between holding and cracking, and the dove-tail doesn't hold that well to begin with. Oh, well, lessons learned for next time. We're leaving Saturday for 10 days in a mountain cabin, so I'll hopefully doing more trout-fishing than brush-turning.

I love the oily hardwoods for exactly this reason -- they basically beg to not be finished with anything other than some high grit sandpaper. With that said, a CA finish on them really makes the grain pop but is so so SOO much more work.

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Originally Posted by ppetresen

I love the oily hardwoods for exactly this reason -- they basically beg to not be finished with anything other than some high grit sandpaper. With that said, a CA finish on them really makes the grain pop but is so so SOO much more work.

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Yeah, I hear ya-those internal oils are practically a built-in finish. Way back in the Brushmaker archives is a pair of B/W Ebony brushes with a CA finish that are beautiful, but I do want to experiment around with more friction polishes.

I love how this one came out, that's a gorgeous piece of wood!
Have what might be a stupid question, but, here goes...
Is that a pic of you drilling with a forstner bit while the other end is only on a live center?

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Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

Attachment 322257

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I'm not sure I've ever seen that done. I get things round between centers, but then put the base in a chuck before i bore anything out.

Regarding the stabilizing, i have only a little experience with that myself, but I would think perhaps in a word like this the resin would mostly soak into the light wood, and kind of balance out the two densities... Maybe?

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Originally Posted by Kavik79

I love how this one came out, that's a gorgeous piece of wood!
Have what might be a stupid question, but, here goes...
Is that a pic of you drilling with a forstner bit while the other end is only on a live center?

I'm not sure I've ever seen that done. I get things round between centers, but then put the base in a chuck before i bore anything out.

Regarding the stabilizing, i have only a little experience with that myself, but I would think perhaps in a word like this the resin would mostly soak into the light wood, and kind of balance out the two densities... Maybe?

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Kavik-You are partly correct. The left side is on a spur-drive center, not a live center (though I had a hard time getting the spurs to drive deep enough to drive reliably in such hard wood). Though I haven't done enough shaving brushes yet to have firm procedures that I always do (I'm still learning, in other words), for my first few I did that way: the left side on a spur drive, and the right being drilled with a forstner bit on a chuck after rounding on the live center.

Now that I have a couple of different size jaw sets for my Nova G3 chuck (20mm and 50mm), I have been chucking them into the jaws to drive and hold the piece, especially on that super-hard desert ironwood brush I recently turned-there's a reason they call it ironwood lol!. No way was I going to get a spur drive to dig into that. I then used a parting tool to square and clean up most of the bottom before sawing off the last little nub, then finishing the bottom by hand.
Attachment 325059
I'm sure there's a better way; I just haven't figured it out yet. In other news, I am now turning pens from both DI and the other tool-killer, Lignum Vitae. Both finish beautifully, but take about twice as long to process a piece as softer woods.

Things are looking good A. Aron.

I would presume that the drill press is working well especially for the pens :shrug:

I'm certainly far from an expert myself, but i like the idea of chucking before boring MUCH better. In my mind it seems way more secure, safer, and better guaranteed to be centered.

You sure do make some bold choices in materials for someone still figuring things out... I like it lol
:beer1:

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Originally Posted by Kavik79

I'm certainly far from an expert myself, but i like the idea of chucking before boring MUCH better. In my mind it seems way more secure, safer, and better guaranteed to be centered.

You sure do make some bold choices in materials for someone still figuring things out... I like it lol
:beer1:

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Upon further thought, I think you're exactly right, Kavik: chuck it square from the beginning, then bore it and finish all on the same chuck will no doubt keep things centered. I had had that exact issue after switching from the initial spur drive to the chuck jaws, and yep, got some wobble I had to turn down and re-center.

And Roy, yeah, that WEN drill press drills like a champ. I started checking my pen blanks with a small square on the platform with a drill press vise, and now get dead-centered, clean holes right on the laser cross-hairs. Damn thing sounds like a freight train, though, lol!

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Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

And Roy, yeah, that WEN drill press drills like a champ. I started checking my pen blanks with a small square on the platform with a drill press vise, and now get dead-centered, clean holes right on the laser cross-hairs. Damn thing sounds like a freight train, though, lol!

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Yes I'll admit that they could be a lot quieter but at least the noise isn't from the damn thing not having tight tolerances like my old Harbor Freight did. I rattled and shook something fierce.

The new Grizzly Benchtop Bandsaw is so much quieter than the Skil. I really wish I'd have found the Grizzly first but that's the way it goes. I'm hoping my son in law can use it or know of someone who can. I don't don't do Craig's List etc but my oldest daughter does so hopefully if the son in law can't find it a home she can.