Spalted maple burl pen blanks (stabilized)

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WoodfulProjects

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2022
Messages
20
Location
Belgium
Hey all,
I recently made a batch of stabilized pen blanks and wanted to share it here.
I'm "fairly new" to penturning (roughly 4 years) compared to others and until now I used to buy my pen blanks online.
I thought I'd give it a go and make the blanks myselft. However, I wasn't expecting some of the costs to be that high (especially resin).
Because now I bought all the equipment to stabilize myself, why not trying to sell some of the blanks I make given that I do have a lot of rare wood types in my stock.
But, I'm experiencing difficulties selling anything and the price seems to be the issue. As said previously, I used to buy my blanks online and the average price is around 9€ (roughly 9$) for a 20x20x150mm. My blanks are around 30x30x220mm and won't even sell at 6€. For now, I do sell in a kind/similar to "craiglist" in my country and this may be the issue.
By selling my blanks at 6€ i'm only covering the resin expenses (around 50€/L) and not covering wood, equipment, electricity, and so on... Are there any suggestions? Am I doing something wrong?
I'm currently testing some stabilizing methods with Paraloid B72, B44 and B67. Till now the results are quite positive -> which will allow me to drastically divide the price of the blanks by 2 if not more. I'm making a video of it and will share it too if others are interested.

View attachment 342269

And for those who want to check the video :)
 
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Gen, sorry but I know nothing about stabilising, though I enjoyed watching your well made video.

My question ( and apologies if it is a stupid one ) is....why do you need to stabilise maple which is a pretty hard wood anyway?

Your blanks look fantastic, by the way.
 
alanemorrison said:
Gen, sorry but I know nothing about stabilising, though I enjoyed watching your well made video.

My question ( and apologies if it is a stupid one ) is....why do you need to stabilise maple which is a pretty hard wood anyway?

Your blanks look fantastic, by the way.
Click to expand...
Hello, the answer was given by bob. Spalted wood is basically "rotten wood". Technically speaking it's a fungus that creates those amazing figures but has an impact on the mechanical properties of the wood.
Now, from what I know, you can stabilize wood for multi reasons, one of them being avoid to work with altered wood (basically given strengh back to some rotten wood). But, there can be other reasons such as having a much more easier to finish product. What I mean by that is that naturally every wood is porous. What resin does is fill all pores/cavities. When you finish the product, most often you do not even need to CA glue the pen as the wood/resin can be polished too.
But probably there are more experienced penturners out of there that know much more than I do and can complete the explanation :D

Thanks for watching the video though. Appreciate it.

Edit : Oh and BTW i had added some pictures to my original post but it seems they are removed now. Not sure why though. But I cannot even edit my first post.
 
There is nothing wrong with your blanks. Change the size to normal penblanks. Try marktplaats.nl or etsy. Ask just 8 or 9 euro/dollar because they are beautiful. The problem with a online shop is not to make a shop but how people find your shop/blank.
Veel succes uit Nederland.
 
WoodfulProjects said:
Hello, the answer was given by bob. Spalted wood is basically "rotten wood". Technically speaking it's a fungus that creates those amazing figures but has an impact on the mechanical properties of the wood.
Click to expand...

I understand about the causes of spalting ok and have turned a lot of spalted beech in the past ( without any stabilising )
I looked at your video and the material that you were cutting appeared pretty solid to me.


bobh64 said:
Looks like he is cutting spalted maple which can have punky (soft) wood in some parts causing the blank to break a part if left un-treated.
Click to expand...
 
wimkluck said:
There is nothing wrong with your blanks. Change the size to normal penblanks. Try marktplaats.nl or etsy. Ask just 8 or 9 euro/dollar because they are beautiful. The problem with a online shop is not to make a shop but how people find your shop/blank.
Veel succes uit Nederland.
Click to expand...
Dank u wel Wim :)
I'll give it a try to marktplaats.nl
Etsy, haven't had success in the past but maybe it's worth a try too.

alanemorrison said:
I understand about the causes of spalting ok and have turned a lot of spalted beech in the past ( without any stabilising )
I looked at your video and the material that you were cutting appeared pretty solid to me.
Click to expand...
You are right, part of the wood (especially the burl -> around 80%) was really hard. But there were some more spalted areas where the wood was less hard. As for the non burl parts, the stabilization was totally necessary.
 
WoodfulProjects said:
Hey all,
I recently made a batch of stabilized pen blanks and wanted to share it here.
I'm "fairly new" to penturning (roughly 4 years) compared to others and until now I used to buy my pen blanks online.
I thought I'd give it a go and make the blanks myselft. However, I wasn't expecting some of the costs to be that high (especially resin).
Because now I bought all the equipment to stabilize myself, why not trying to sell some of the blanks I make given that I do have a lot of rare wood types in my stock.
But, I'm experiencing difficulties selling anything and the price seems to be the issue. As said previously, I used to buy my blanks online and the average price is around 9€ (roughly 9$) for a 20x20x150mm. My blanks are around 30x30x220mm and won't even sell at 6€. For now, I do sell in a kind/similar to "craiglist" in my country and this may be the issue.
By selling my blanks at 6€ i'm only covering the resin expenses (around 50€/L) and not covering wood, equipment, electricity, and so on... Are there any suggestions? Am I doing something wrong?
I'm currently testing some stabilizing methods with Paraloid B72, B44 and B67. Till now the results are quite positive -> which will allow me to drastically divide the price of the blanks by 2 if not more. I'm making a video of it and will share it too if others are interested.

View attachment 342269

And for those who want to check the video :)
Click to expand...
very nive job indeed! Great craftmanship has nothing to do with marketing however. How do you advertise your products? Do you use any social media platforms to communicate your craftsmanship & products ? An etsy or ebay listing (or a website etc.) isn't much nowadays since it can be lost in a sea of similar sites/listings etc. You need ways to communicate your products and direct traffic to your site.
I would recommend setting up a social media account; instagram for instance, attracts many makers so that you build a community around your craft. Another way would be google ads; although this can be a bit more expensive.
Anyway, i would love to buy a couple of your blanks, where can i find them?
cheers
 
MedWoodWorx said:
very nive job indeed! Great craftmanship has nothing to do with marketing however. How do you advertise your products? Do you use any social media platforms to communicate your craftsmanship & products ? An etsy or ebay listing (or a website etc.) isn't much nowadays since it can be lost in a sea of similar sites/listings etc. You need ways to communicate your products and direct traffic to your site.
I would recommend setting up a social media account; instagram for instance, attracts many makers so that you build a community around your craft. Another way would be google ads; although this can be a bit more expensive.
Anyway, i would love to buy a couple of your blanks, where can i find them?
cheers
Click to expand...
Efkaristo poli.
True words are spoken. But, the thing is I'm pretty bad with social medias. But it seems that nowadays its necessary.
I do have an instagram but I'm not really active, not as much as I wish.
As for the blanks, right now the only place I'm trying to sell them is a belgian "2nd hand" website. I haven't yet put them on etsy or something similar where people can purchase. I'll try ebay...
I'd be glad to sell some of them to you or to the penturning community.
 
WoodfulProjects said:
Efkaristo poli.
True words are spoken. But, the thing is I'm pretty bad with social medias. But it seems that nowadays its necessary.
I do have an instagram but I'm not really active, not as much as I wish.
As for the blanks, right now the only place I'm trying to sell them is a belgian "2nd hand" website. I haven't yet put them on etsy or something similar where people can purchase. I'll try ebay...
I'd be glad to sell some of them to you or to the penturning community.
Click to expand...
I ll be honest with you: its the first time that i am part of a forum, i have an instagram account for less than a year and its the third year i own a smartphone. I have had a computer since i was 15 (i am 42 at the time) but never believed in internet friends/relationships/groups etc. Man i was so wrong. I learned how to turn from youtube ( ok i am not great but i am getting better); i learned so many penturning stuff from this forum and i also learn stuff from instagram. I don't know how else i would learn all these stuff in the small town where i live ( i have no access to woodturning workshops, penturning in Greece is not a thing yet, etc.).
Check my instagram account if you like and follow me to follow you back. Cheers
 
MedWoodWorx said:
I ll be honest with you: its the first time that i am part of a forum, i have an instagram account for less than a year and its the third year i own a smartphone. I have had a computer since i was 15 (i am 42 at the time) but never believed in internet friends/relationships/groups etc. Man i was so wrong. I learned how to turn from youtube ( ok i am not great but i am getting better); i learned so many penturning stuff from this forum and i also learn stuff from instagram. I don't know how else i would learn all these stuff in the small town where i live ( i have no access to woodturning workshops, penturning in Greece is not a thing yet, etc.).
Check my instagram account if you like and follow me to follow you back. Cheers
Click to expand...
I'm nearly 39 and been part of communities/forums since I've been 13yo. I wasn't thinking of a forum a social media, but it actually is.
The thing about social media that bothers me is the intrusive part (eg facebook). But, given that I only publish hobby related stuff, I've allowed myself to use Instagram. As I said, I'm probably doing it wrong too (content to publish, frequency, referencing, etc). It's never late to learn :) I guess.
As for the learning part, youtube has been my learning method too, for years. The same way I learned things, I'm trying to help back by doing these videos (which require a lot of time and brings me nothing else in return except for the kind and positive comments/feedbacks I read which is sufficient to me).
Although I do not post much, the forum has been a reference to me especially for blanks making & stabilizing.
 
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