Palmwood Stabilized?

[RobS]

Anyone try stabilizing palmwood with Cactus Juice? I love the look of it, but the last two I made, I had to really work at getting a proper multi coat of CA for a nice glass smooth finish. I was wondering if anyone tried stabilizing it and had an easier time preventing blowouts and reducing the amount of sanding and CA finish work. Don't get me wrong I'll spend 4 hrs on something to get it right, but if there is a smarter way, I'm up for it.

Thanks

 

[thewishman]

I have tried stabilized palm a couple of times, but always knock a chunk out. Have not finished a pen.

 

[KenV]

Have done cactus juice on several pieces. I use a skew and am very careful to cut "down hill".

A bit easier but care is still needed.

 

[jttheclockman]

Do you have some turned down that is not stabalized. Love to see what it looks like. Have to say I never work with it or even bamboo. Would love to see that in a turned down state also.

 

[RobS]

Cigar Pen, Palmwood, CA & friction finish, Gold Hardware, my 6th pen I have made.
The shape was intentional, the owner was a quarterback.

View in Gallery




Cigar Pen, Palmwood, CA & friction finish, Gunmetal Hardware, my 22nd pen I have made.
The thin shape was requested by the owner, he wanted the smallest largest pen shape, the owner is french and is accustomed to a S.T. Dupont.

View in Gallery

I normaly sand through 600grit with abranet, and then have to do 3-5 coats of thin and 2-5 coats of med, to fill in the voids. I use a square-radius carbide full sized handled cutter and turn the last bit at 3,000+ RPM holding the cutter at a 45 degree instead of horizontal to skim cut. I just suck at CA coating and was wondering if stabilizing would reduce the work effort. I end up applying a friction finish over the CA, because the CA fill the voids, but I end up sanding down everything else back to the wood.

 

[jttheclockman]

Thanks Rob. Both look good. I love the grain of that wood. Will have to look into this in the future. Thanks for showing.

 

[RobS]

John

Quick tip if you can buy it in person, not all grain is the same, these had a very tight black spaghetti type pattern on the ends (as in it looked like I was holding a bunch of black noodles very tightly). However, I received another from an online order and the spacing between the black is huge, which I think will make for a poor grain pattern once turned.

 

[jttheclockman]

John

Quick tip if you can buy it in person, not all grain is the same, these had a very tight black spaghetti type pattern on the ends (as in it looked like I was holding a bunch of black noodles very tightly). However, I received another from an online order and the spacing between the black is huge, which I think will make for a poor grain pattern once turned.

Thanks for tip Rob. I try to buy only woods that I can see and touch but have bought some such as BOW without seeing and have been both happy and sad. Want to take a shot at bamboo also and I am betting that too has color differences and grain differences. Just something for a future project. Have a lot of those.

 

[KenV]

Do you have some turned down that is not stabalized. Love to see what it looks like. Have to say I never work with it or even bamboo. Would love to see that in a turned down state also.

John,

Go to the photos section and use the search function there to search on "palm". I saw pens with fan palm, black palm and red palm on a quick look.

Palm is harvested from the outside of the trunk and fiber density varies as you move to the core (less density towards the core).

Like turning a bundle of porcupine quills.

 

[jttheclockman]

Do you have some turned down that is not stabalized. Love to see what it looks like. Have to say I never work with it or even bamboo. Would love to see that in a turned down state also.

John,

Go to the photos section and use the search function there to search on "palm". I saw pens with fan palm, black palm and red palm on a quick look.

Palm is harvested from the outside of the trunk and fiber density varies as you move to the core (less density towards the core).

Like turning a bundle of porcupine quills.

Yes a little something different than the norm. That would make it intriguing