Cottonwood burl

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Dale Lynch

Dale Lynch

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Joined
Dec 12, 2011
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Hastings,NE
Hi everyone,

Here is my latest work.It is a Jr.Gent 1 dressed in cottonwood burl with sodalite dust inlay.There was a huge void when I cut the blanks so that needed to be filled before I could drill for the tubes.I sprinked some sodalite dust onto it then added a few drops of CA to glue it in.Had to repeat that 4 or 5 times to get it built up enough.Got the barrels turned to size and had to fill a couple more spots,then I deceded to add some accent rings.I cut the groves with a skew and filled them with the sprinkle and glue method.I think it brought it all together because the random spots of powder looked a little funny by themselves.Comments and critiques welcomed.
 

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Beautiful job on a beautiful piece of wood! That's the first cottonwood burl that I have seen and wow have I ever missed out!

Mike
 
Now I'm feeling pretty silly for walking past that cottonwood burl the other day.....maybe I can get back to that 'spot' this week and grab it?

Not sure one way or the other with the 'lines', but it does look good this way!


Scott (sodalite is purty) B
 
Thanks everyone,I think the colors in the burl were done by the ants inside.I cut open a couple others that didn't have ants and the color was pretty pale inside.Luckily I have more than a few pieces that had ants in them.
 
As far as I'm concerned, I get a lot more enjoyment in being challenged with a flawed blank than a blank that require no imagination in its execution into a pen.

I also often pick the most flawed piece of wood, that show colouration and grain potential, fillings can do amazing things to a pen barrel, but it can also turn it into an ugly duck in some coordination/balance is not considered.

Creating the fillings is most typical and nothing different however, cutting the rings recess on both barrels to complement the vivid blue used on the filings, did only do wanders to the way the pen look, that finish is spot on and one that I like, a lot.

Interestingly, this same principle can be used in many other forms/shapes of pieces turned on a lathe, I remember a few years back that, I was turning a vessel out of a local tree so called "Christmas tree" for its shape needles, the tree dies (I reckon poisoned by someone) and I was lucky to be allow to cut it down.

A pretty sort of pine tree with pots of nots and pretty grain but, and while I though the wood was dry, when I rough turned the piece but not too thick, the piece cracked like mad, almost making it unworkable/unsalvageable but, I was not prepare to throw it out so, I started a long process of tying it down with strong thin string top and base and work out what to do with all those cracks, all of a certain I decided to use a Dremel tool and start to deepen the cracks and then re-created non existent cracks in the good areas to make it more even and more balanced, after that I filled it all with blue Pearlex and 5 minutes Araldite.

That's a lot of fillings but, there were lots of cracks but in the end I endup enjoying what I done, something that I would not have done, if the cracks weren't there so, not a bad way to recover a bad piece, I reckon...!

101_1583.JPG 101_1584 (800x600).jpg 101_1585 (800x600).jpg 101_1586 (800x600).jpg

All good fun...!

Cheers
George
 
robutacion said:
As far as I'm concerned, I get a lot more enjoyment in being challenged with a flawed blank than a blank that require no imagination in its execution into a pen.

I also often pick the most flawed piece of wood, that show colouration and grain potential, fillings can do amazing things to a pen barrel, but it can also turn it into an ugly duck in some coordination/balance is not considered.

Creating the fillings is most typical and nothing different however, cutting the rings recess on both barrels to complement the vivid blue used on the filings, did only do wanders to the way the pen look, that finish is spot on and one that I like, a lot.

Interestingly, this same principle can be used in many other forms/shapes of pieces turned on a lathe, I remember a few years back that, I was turning a vessel out of a local tree so called "Christmas tree" for its shape needles, the tree dies (I reckon poisoned by someone) and I was lucky to be allow to cut it down.

A pretty sort of pine tree with pots of nots and pretty grain but, and while I though the wood was dry, when I rough turned the piece but not too thick, the piece cracked like mad, almost making it unworkable/unsalvageable but, I was not prepare to throw it out so, I started a long process of tying it down with strong thin string top and base and work out what to do with all those cracks, all of a certain I decided to use a Dremel tool and start to deepen the cracks and then re-created non existent cracks in the good areas to make it more even and more balanced, after that I filled it all with blue Pearlex and 5 minutes Araldite.

That's a lot of fillings but, there were lots of cracks but in the end I endup enjoying what I done, something that I would not have done, if the cracks weren't there so, not a bad way to recover a bad piece, I reckon...!

View attachment 120486 View attachment 120487 View attachment 120488 View attachment 120489

All good fun...!

Cheers
George
Click to expand...


Beautifull form George,quite a bit more adverturous in tackling that than my little pen.Like you I get more satisfaction from working with flawed blanks as well.


rossvh said:
Excellent! I love the color combination. What was your source for the Sodalite?
RossVH
Click to expand...

Ross,I got the dust from taking a scrap piece of tru-stone and grinding it up with a disc sander.

Thanks again everyone,I appreciate the feedback.
 
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