Any experience with charcoal?

[keithbyrd]

Has anyone ever tried to stabilize charcoal? Customer gave me a piece of burnt wood with a story and wants a pen - any insight out there?

 

[derekdd]

The closest I've come is a customer wanted a charred live edge on a walnut table I used clear table top epoxy on.

It go as I thought it would and was messy.

Sounds like a very cool idea, however. I assume you'd use Cactus Juice and a vacuum pot?

 

[Mach4]

I've done both a shou sugi ban technique where you essentially burn wood and then apply boiled linseed oil finish to both finish and stabilize the wood. This technique is a common Japanese method of preserving wood. You can see that applied to the coffee tamper using mahogany wood that was burned with a torch. The other technique I've used is essentially a natural shui sugi ban finish on fence posts that were burned in the cedar Fire in San Diego. I turned the burnt posts into twig pots then used linseed oil on the burnt parts and polyurethane on the turned parts.

Not sure how this would work for pens, but might give you some ideas to try.

 

[Gary Beasley]

You could also burn it until you get an alligator texture then do a worthless wood casting with clear alumilite.

 

[RDHals]

I've cast charcoal in Alumilite and turned them into pens a few times, both crushed into powder and left chunky. Lump charcoal not briquets. Never stabilized any of it, worked great.

 

[keithbyrd]

I've cast charcoal in Alumilite and turned them into pens a few times, both crushed into powder and left chunky. Lump charcoal not briquets. Never stabilized any of it, worked great.

Thanks for the info. did you finish with CA?

 

[keithbyrd]

I've done both a shou sugi ban technique where you essentially burn wood and then apply boiled linseed oil finish to both finish and stabilize the wood. This technique is a common Japanese method of preserving wood. You can see that applied to the coffee tamper using mahogany wood that was burned with a torch. The other technique I've used is essentially a natural shui sugi ban finish on fence posts that were burned in the cedar Fire in San Diego. I turned the burnt posts into twig pots then used linseed oil on the burnt parts and polyurethane on the turned parts.

Not sure how this would work for pens, but might give you some ideas to try.

View attachment 355063View attachment 355062

Nice work! I like those!

 

[keithbyrd]

The closest I've come is a customer wanted a charred live edge on a walnut table I used clear table top epoxy on.

It go as I thought it would and was messy.

Sounds like a very cool idea, however. I assume you'd use Cactus Juice and a vacuum pot?

yes planning to use cactus juice. Will be trying it this weekend.

 

[RDHals]

Thanks for the info. did you finish with CA?

Don't recall, been over 5 years. That or Mylands friction polish

 

[keithbyrd]

Here are a couple of shots of pens made with wood salvaged out of a fire. Customer brought back from a hunting trip in Colorado and New Mexico and wanted to know if I could make any pens out of it. Cut several blanks and stabilized them - blew up several and ended up with four completed pens! Comments and critiques welcome.

 

[derekdd]

Wow, that's impressive, Keith.

 

[Woodchipper]

Never seen that. So this tells us that even firewood can be used to make pens.

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

We did "naughty and nice" blanks several years ago where the "naughty" was food grade charcoal (super fine) mixed with alumilite. If you get enough in there you can actually write with the blank when it's done. Not sure you can mix that much by hand though, we have a big industrial mixer.

 

[keithbyrd]

Where you looking for the color or just to see what it would turn out like?