RHossack
Member
I had another go at using Red Fir bark as a material for a pen body.
This one came up with its own new set of particular issues.
Bonding to the brass tube has been a big problem but appears to be history as I'm using Sumo PU glue and not one tear out on the last few.
Because the light part is very soft (like balsa) and the dark is wood it's hard to turn and get a smooth finish.
Also, if the soft end is on the nib or final and you try to square the blank, the wood peels like dead skin and you have a void to fix and coffee grounds fixed this.
No matter what I did I couldn't fill the voids in the body between the light and dark areas (usually do a slurry paste fill) so they were smooth enough to apply a CA finish so I dipped in Lacquer.
After 15 dips and there were still some small voids I gave up and put it together as I was concerned it would be too thick and not fit properly.
This one came up with its own new set of particular issues.
Bonding to the brass tube has been a big problem but appears to be history as I'm using Sumo PU glue and not one tear out on the last few.
Because the light part is very soft (like balsa) and the dark is wood it's hard to turn and get a smooth finish.
Also, if the soft end is on the nib or final and you try to square the blank, the wood peels like dead skin and you have a void to fix and coffee grounds fixed this.
No matter what I did I couldn't fill the voids in the body between the light and dark areas (usually do a slurry paste fill) so they were smooth enough to apply a CA finish so I dipped in Lacquer.
After 15 dips and there were still some small voids I gave up and put it together as I was concerned it would be too thick and not fit properly.