Segmenting with brass inserts between segments

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kstrauss

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Joined
Dec 9, 2012
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13
Location
Beaver Dam Wis.
I have made about 15 segmented pens of different styles with metal accents between the different woods. I have noticed on three of them that I can feel a small difference or ridge in the thickness. You can not see this difference but can feel it by running your finger over the surface of the pen. These pens were made in the summer of 2013 with various woods that I had in stock. My only answer to this is that the very dry air in my house in Wis. in the middle of winter maybe to dry and the wood is shrinking a very little and the metal inserts are not shrinking at all, creating a thickness difference. I do seal the ends of the blanks before assembling the pens. So far it is only affecting three out of fifteen pens but I am concerned about the remaining ones. I am thinking of adding moisture to my air quality via a better humidifier. Has any body else ever experience this problem. Ken
 
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I am going to try to add moisture to my air , I know it is dryer that it should be but I didn't think it was that dry. I will probably have to refinish these three pens if I want to sell them.
 
Wood moves, unless it is stabilized. Mixed materials will give a feel like that, I think, no matter what unless they are 'encased'. Some of that can also come from the sanding process as the wood will be removed ever so slightly more than the brass. Just my.02
 
Paul is right about the difference in hardness. You need to wrap your sand paper around something rigid when sanding. I have a strip of acrylic blank material. Nice and, smooth on one side. I can use it with water or mineral spirits. George taught me this trick and, it works well for me.
 
I understand what you are saying , when the pens were assembled they were very smooth and there was no difference between the metal and wood segments, leading me to believe the wood is shrinking due to dry air in the winter. This just happened in the last week because I inspect them on a regular basis because I have them listed for sale online. I have pulled these three for the time being until I decide what I will do with them. Thank You for your replies.
 
I have also had this happen. I think Chuck is right about it. I usually try to finish my segmented pens with a very very very very sharp skew so I won't have to do much sanding if any. I also notice if I use any metal lengthwise in the blank it will really sand down the wood and make like flat spots. I think humidity also has something to do with this. Interesting thing wood is.
 
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