Thread: Expensive sawdust, working out the lathe and turning brushes

I have been playing with the lathe getting in some practice on some less expensive wood, cherry, walnut, moved up to some Bocote and Cocobolo, turned a little tulip wood. Tonight I chucked up a 13 inch long hunk of burl. You have to have sharp tools, I had to give my gouges and skew chisel a retouch and you have to go slow otherwise you will chunk out the burl. It sure makes some nice shavings, that is some expensive gerbil bedding.

I have also been working on finishes trying to find something that will hold up the abuses of shaving. Epoxy resin is not viable due to the cure time. the pieces would have to be constantly turning at very low RPM’s for 24 hours while the resin set up. Varnish an urethane is not cutting it, turners finish is a wax base and relys on friction but if you soak your brush in hot water, there goes your wax. I have settled on a semi gloss boat finish. Since it is a boat finish it is designed to stand up to wet environment but still takes 24 hours to dry but it can be applied and the work piece set aside to dry then recoated a day later.

At any rate, I put together 5 sets of scales this evening and then went at the lathe turning a string of burl handles, a black palm handle and a mystery wood handle. The mystery wood has some striking grain so I picked it up out of the ‘by the pound’ box at the wood shop. I decided to try something new on that one. There is only so much you can do to a brush; after all, it is a handle. I turned it down to a cylinder and stood there staring at it trying to decide what I could do to make it different and maximize the stock and grain. I decided to try turning a brush with no hard edges, all flowing lines and tight curves. To make it more interesting, I made it larger than normal and cut 3 finger grooves in the handle. I think it came out quite nice.

Nice! You know- I think a lot of lathe guys use CA as the finish they apply while the piece is turning. I have a CA finished brush handle and it's gorgeous! Flawless finish. He said he just applies it as it turns and the CA does the rest. I guess you can sand and polish right on the lathe too. Sorry I don't have details, but you might want to look into it. It is an amazing finish for brushes.

I don’t get the entire CA thing, I just don’t like it. I don’t care for the look it imparts in the wood, it lacks depth to my eye. It is hard to describe but I just don’t care for the finish. My other concern was the durability of a CA finish. While it seals and forms a hard shell, a hard shell is not always favorable. My concern was water migrating under the shell over time. That would cause the finish to essentially lose its cohesion and flake off in sheets. It sounds you are having a favorable experience with finish. This finish should do a good job and is holding up to my tests, which are none to gentle. I like how it penetrates the wood and brings some life to wood. I put on two coats, micromesh sand and a third finishing coat leaves me with a hard, water resistant durable finish while preserving the depth, beauty and organic nature of the medium.

Part of what I like about wood working is studying the medium and then trying to unlock what is hidden inside. I believe it was Michael Angelo that when asked how he decides what to carve in the marble replied the image (or person) is already locked inside, I simply free them from the block. That is also why so much of his work looks partially completed, he would come to a point and stop citing that there was nothing left in the marble to reveal.

That is why some of those brushes are longer than others, they were cut that way on purpose to maximize not only the stock but the grain/figuring in the stock. It would be a shame to relegate a unique bit of grain to the shavings pile. If you look at the one with the finger grooves, I spaced the wood out and turned the grooves where I did to make the most out of some unique figuring in the wood. My other observation, black palm is a PITA to turn. The hard/soft graining structure of the stock makes it very prone to shredding and chunking. That brush has some chunks and rough spots in it and will never see a silvertip brush but it does make a good destructive test sample.

To each his own. You can't seriously tell me that this brush lacks depth though: http://straightrazorpalace.com/brush...huya-burl.html

I'll give a big +1 to CA. To impart depth you could do a coat or 2 of oil, then topcoat with CA.
I'm just getting started on the lathe, but CA seems like the best finish for brushes I've tried to far when you need waterproofing.

I've been considering trying this out myself. Thanks for the inspiration. I've really got to get my garage cleared out.

That is some beautiful wood and woodwork!!!

The ones I have seen have been much flatter, almost imitation looking. I suppose I should give it a try even if it is simply for the experience of having used it.

Originally Posted by Philadelph

To each his own. You can't seriously tell me that this brush lacks depth though: http://straightrazorpalace.com/brush...huya-burl.html

CA or resin type (boat finishes) will fail over time. Good start, stabilize the wood before application of finish. Minwax makes a pretty good wood hardener. As far as CA finish goes, use a very thin type for the first couple coats so you get penetration, then go on to a medium CA for build (it'll give you that depth you're looking for). Once you are satisfied with the amount of coats, maybe 6 to 8, sand and polish. I usually go up to 1500 grit, then polish it with compounds until it looks like glass.

Can't wait to see the finished brushes..... especially the burls..
Good work.

Guys who make split bamboo fly rods finish the rods with spar varnish. To avoid the varnish running while it dries they have it mounted in a "turner" that uses a rotisserie motor. That turns it very slowly.

Just an idea for you,