I had some fun trying out something a "little" different

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KMCloonan

KMCloonan

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I'm not sure where I got this idea, but I have searched and not found anything like it.

I have been making my own hybrid blanks for a couple of years now, with decent results. I sometimes struggle to find reasonably priced live edge burls. I started out simply cutting a block of Cherry burl using my bandsaw into two "S" shaped pieces that I was going to cast into some sort of hybrid.
Mini1.jpg

Then I got the idea to use my bandsaw to make the curves more jagged, simulating more of a live edge. This turned out pretty cool, but it made the two blocks of cherry quite a bit thinner, leaving a large open space in the mold to fill with resin. I don't think hybrid blanks with small pieces of burl at each end looks very good, so I decided to move the two chunks of burl closer together to reduce the resin field. I used a couple strips of oak as backer boards to hold the cherry in place (along with some hot glue.

mini2.jpg

This looked sort of cool - like a river runs through it.... Then I started thinking about making shorter hybrid blanks....

So I poured my resin and put it in the pressure pot
mini3.jpg

Once I cut away the oak backer boards, the remaining hybrid block was 3" tall x 5.25" wide.

I took the block to my bandsaw and cut normal width (but much shorter) hybrid blanks

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They looked pretty cool

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I threw one on my lathe and turned the blank down and threw it into a LeRoi kit.

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I have not seen a lot of single barrel pens with a "Wood-Resin-Wood" blank. For most single barrel pens, you cut a hybrid blank in half, so you have a "Wood-Resin" blank (or a "resin-wood")

I like the look of this pen with the mini-hybrid blank. The upside is you use less material. The downside is that it takes the same amount of work to prep and pour the hybrid blank. I am going to try this again in a larger mold, and make more in one pour.

Also, I am really happy with the "Fake" live-edge I made by cutting the edge of the burl board into jagged sections.

Thanks for reading this long post. Comments and critiques welcome.
 
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What a great idea Kevin.
If you were using more translucent resin, then it might be more obvious that it isn't actual live edge material, but this one with the opaque resin, you can't tell at all.
 
Wow, lots of cool stuff going on there. Of course, I'm going to use some of the processes you came up with to make some blanks of my own at some point. Did you stabilize the wood or was it just dry? - Dave
 
egnald said:
Wow, lots of cool stuff going on there. Of course, I'm going to use some of the processes you came up with to make some blanks of my own at some point. Did you stabilize the wood or was it just dry? - Dave
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I did stabilize the wood, even though the cherry burl was not punky at all, I don't like to take a chance on having a blow out when turning,
 
d_bondi said:
What a great idea Kevin.
If you were using more translucent resin, then it might be more obvious that it isn't actual live edge material, but this one with the opaque resin, you can't tell at all.
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I thought the same thing, but most of my hybrids are usually opaque resins anyway. Thanks!.
 
anthonyd said:
Looks great! If you don't mind me asking, what is the name of the green dye that you used?
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I actually used two shades of green - I used Conch green and Harmony green from Divine Pigments - you can get them at Exotic Blanks, and TurnTex, and probably other places. The Harmony green is a darker shade. The Conch green is the turquoise shade.
 
They look great Kevin! I like to use scrap wood, resin pieces or HDPE in my molds to fill voids and conserve resin. Sometimes even live edge needs some added character. You did good with your cuts! You can also hit them with a torch to burn the cut edges and then hit them with a wire brush to help make them look less man made. Keep up the good work!
 
JohnU said:
They look great Kevin! I like to use scrap wood, resin pieces or HDPE in my molds to fill voids and conserve resin. Sometimes even live edge needs some added character. You did good with your cuts! You can also hit them with a torch to burn the cut edges and then hit them with a wire brush to help make them look less man made. Keep up the good work!
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Great suggestions John! I will work on these for my next batch!
 
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