Scrap Segmenting - Flex your artistic muscles

[BryanMurphy]

I took a bunch of cut-offs and scrap and glued it all together. Now I need to cut it up into blanks with the following two considerations:
1. Get the most blanks out of it
2. Make sure they are interesting/cool looking

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to chop it up? I was thinking about 90degree cuts so the pieces are more interesting.

 

[magpens]

I would suggest angled cuts ... followed by some creative segmenting and possibly including additional angled cuts ... rather than the 90* cuts.
Personally, I find 90* cuts quite uninteresting ...
Nevertheless, I will be quite interested in seeing what you come up with.

ExoticBlanks sometimes offers random segmented blanks made by one of the IAP members. . Some of those have piqued my interest at times.

 

[tomtedesco]

magpens is right on, I totally agree. Maybe even a sliver of copper or alum.

 

[Mike P]

This is a really cool idea - especially because until the pen is finished you might not realize how cool looking the blank is. Please share the photos of the cut blanks and any you end up turning!

 

[hewunch]

Too late now, but if you want to maximize the number of blanks, you might think about stacking them from shortest to tallest. The staggered order you have will yield unnecessary shorts. This would aid in the angled cut and interest. Also, you could reglue the leftovers again to yield a few more blanks. $.02

 

[DrD]

The guy on RJB Woodturner You Tube videos does what you're doing. He has several videos on how to make what he call "Chaos" blanks, and then turning those into cool looking pens. His videos are very much self-explanatory, easy to follow, and usually anticipatrs and answers most questions. Check him out.