Crush blanks

[PenHog]

Hi,

I'm sorry if this has been covered before and, if so, I'd be grateful if someone pointed me to the correct place.

My questions are about crush blanks, along the lines of the attached image. Most of the blanks I see made by individuals are alumilite, so I'm guessing that crush blanks are tricky. A couple questions:

(1) Is there someone in the community who makes crush blanks and takes custom orders?

(2) Is there a method for creating crush blanks that doesn't require factory facilities? My uneducated guess is that you'd need a device for grinding up material in to (a) crush-sized chunks, and (b) fine material for mixing in with an adhesive of some sort to bind everything together. If this is correct, is there a device that does this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jttheclockman]

Do not know about people making them but here are some I did recently that are old time resin material. They turned very easily and todays blanks can not compare to what these are.

https://www.penturners.org/threads/next-up.164455/

Here is a site where he sells stone and crushed fillers. You can use any resin to mix blanks.

https://www.arizonasilhouette.com/category/crushed-stone.html

 

[JohnU]

It's possible to make crushed blanks and many have done it, mostly with Polyresin. For tools, I've used a hammer with resin pieces in a bag so they don't go flying. Alumilite can be cut up with a bandsaw and recast but it doesn't have as strong of a bond as recast polyresin.

I've found nice variety at exoticblanks with Conway blanks.

Conway Colors Pen Blanks

Conway Colors Pen Blanks. These are the same blanks that were made to the famous pen manufacturer, Conway Stewart.

www.exoticblanks.com

There are others ... night jewels, festival,and Carmel popcorn. There are solid colors but the multi colors really stand out.

 

[EricRN]

I've thought about casting mica flake to create a crush effect. Haven't tried it, and the materials are expensive. Curious to hear what others say and ideas they have.

 

[mick]

I can't speak for all our vendors but Exotic Blanks carry some colors of crushed blanks. I've used orange, greeen, blue and purple and a deep red. They may have a couple more.

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[PenHog]

My thanks to everyone above for all the responses!

I have vintage crushed blanks (nice pens, JT), conway stewart blanks, and other similar stuff; it's all great material, as you point out. However, I'm looking for a particular shade of turquoise that just doesn't seem to be available commercially anymore. I've spent many, many hours looking at both individual makers and larger sellers.

John: your idea of using a hammer/bag to smash up resin and casting is interesting. Once you have the "chunks/granules", do you do anything to add color to the resin that you're using to bind them all together? I'm a newb, but it seems to me that unless you added color to the actual glue/binding/polyresin, your blanks would have uneven coloring (i.e., colored chunks separated by, say, clear polyresin). Is there a dye or some coloring agent that works well?

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[its_virgil]

Crushed velvet duraclick

Do a good turn daily!
Don

 

[JohnU]

Depending on the colors used you can add a light or weak mixture of dye to the resin so it doesn't overtake the crushed color. I've used a little black to darken the clear resin a little. It will also depend on how large or small the chuncks are. I separated them by size and tried to keep them all similar. The original material being crushed will want to have a strong colorant so it's present in the small pieces, but if you mix the same color in the resin to pour over the crushed pieces you risk blending the small pieces into one large piece again, making it hard to see the pieces. I've used white crushed in colored resin. You will have to play with your mixtures to find what you like.

 

[mick]

My thanks to everyone above for all the responses!

I have vintage crushed blanks (nice pens, JT), conway stewart blanks, and other similar stuff; it's all great material, as you point out. However, I'm looking for a particular shade of turquoise that just doesn't seem to be available commercially anymore. I've spent many, many hours looking at both individual makers and larger sellers.

John: your idea of using a hammer/bag to smash up resin and casting is interesting. Once you have the "chunks/granules", do you do anything to add color to the resin that you're using to bind them all together? I'm a newb, but it seems to me that unless you added color to the actual glue/binding/polyresin, your blanks would have uneven coloring (i.e., colored chunks separated by, say, clear polyresin). Is there a dye or some coloring agent that works well?

Thanks again, everyone.

I've got done crushed up poly resin I'm gonna cast this weekend. I am thinking I'm gonna use black on some.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[PenHog]

Depending on the colors used you can add a light or weak mixture of dye to the resin so it doesn't overtake the crushed color. I've used a little black to darken the clear resin a little. It will also depend on how large or small the chuncks are. I separated them by size and tried to keep them all similar. The original material being crushed will want to have a strong colorant so it's present in the small pieces, but if you mix the same color in the resin to pour over the crushed pieces you risk blending the small pieces into one large piece again, making it hard to see the pieces. I've used white crushed in colored resin. You will have to play with your mixtures to find what you like.

Thanks, John, that's really helpful. This is something I'll have to try once enough time frees up.