Stabilized Blank Evaluation

[jeff]

Greetings All

I was contacted a month or so ago by Jeff Tortorelli. His company Stabilized Wood of America purchased the stabilized wood business from "Native Woods". (Apparently that company offered some selection of stabilized blanks in some colors.) Jeff expanded the color selection and species and wanted to get the word out about his line of blanks. They have the colors you see on the chart below, in buckeye burl, spalted maple, maple burl, redwood, and boxelder. You'll see in the photo that his color chart is pretty slick. It's actual chunks of wood glued to a piece of hardboard.

I told Jeff that if he'd send me some samples I'd get some of our members to turn them and report on the result. The method to my madness is this; I think these are damn nice blanks. If you do too, and we can whip up a little enthusiasm for them, perhaps we can get someone to run a group buy.

Jeff's company does not sell small quantities, but these blanks are available from Ernie at Bear Tooth Woods. I'll leave it up to anyone who might be interested in coordinating a buy to decide whether to deal with Jeff's company directly or with a reseller. I'd suggest checking with Ernie first. I bet he could work with the manufacturer to get us a nice deal.

Here is the color chart:

I sent two blanks each to: Anthony Turchetta, Gary Greenberg, James Gillespie, and Dario Octaviano.

Here are the pics from the guys. I can't find the ones from James!! (JAMES can you post them please!?!)

Dario, Anthony, and Gary, please feel free to post your comments on these. You all sent me some comments in email, but I am so behind in getting this posted that I didn't want to wait until I had time to format it up. All the comments were favorable as I recall... OK on to the photos!

From Anthony (dip pens):

From Dario:

From Gary:

Feel free to discuss!!!

 

[Dario]

Here is my review. Please note that I did mine in haste...thinking that Jeff needed them posted right away. If I've known there is time, these would have been much better finish wise.

Yellow on Black TN Jr Gent II Rollerball.
Green on Platinum Jr Gent Twist pen.

I received 2 blanks a yellow one (0802) and a green one (5320?). The dimensions are roughly 0.73 " to 0.75" square.

The blank looked nicely colored and stabilized from the outside. Cutting is a hybrid between wood and PR...hard but cuts really well. Same as drilling, I got ribbons that break off easier than a PR. It drils really well and I believe it got the best of both worlds (wood and PR). It does smell like PR while cutting and drilling. I got a good consistent hole despite the size of the blank, I had no problem drilling with a 1/2" bit.

Turning is a pleasure. Again it is like a wood/PR hybrid. I got really nice curly shavings but not as bad as that of pure PR. Color was very consistent through out. I loved the shavings from the yellow blank...I almost too a pic of the shavings because they are very nice. I did encounter a natural red in my yellow blank and for me it is a pleasant surprise. There was just a little hint of it at the end but it extended through most part of the blank when I turned it. Turning time (for me) is faster than my average using a regular wood blank. I didn't encounter any tear out or cracking.

I was tempted to leave one without a finish but I cannot...as nice as it is bare, CA finish still adds a lot more to it. The depth on these are not shown on the pics but I can see why folks are willing to spend the extra dollars to buy stabilized blanks or have what blanks they have professionally stabilized.

My experience is very favorable and would recommend these blanks without hesitation. As a testament...the yellow one sold last week.

 

[GaryMGg]

I wrote two REALLY LONG reviews 'cause I'd only turned one other stabilized wood blank before I got these and hadn't turned any PR or other man-made material.

Executive summary: Y'all gotta get some of these; they're sweet and make gorgeous pens.

Long version follows.
This was the first, edited somewhat:

I got my blanks today. I received a yellow one and a blue one; ...

The blank lacked a square edge -- perhaps the stabilizing process causes warping or the blanks are warped badly due to being gnarly burls with inclusions and voids. Whatever the cause, the edge chipped out when I cut the blank to size on my tablesaw which I use with a sled having a zero-tolerance throat. The chip didn't affect things. Having marked the center, I began to drill the lower barrel. I went slowly, much slower than typical and the blank still blew out badly. ;(
Being that it was a big chunk, I glued it back on with thin and med CA, then cleared the barrel by holding the blank on the drill bit and turning the chuck by hand (large floor model DP using a brand new bit obtained from CSUSA). I then milled the edges square...., mounted it and began turning. Reminds me of doing surfboard repairs -- smelled like filing fiberglass and resin.
At first the blank turned with little flakes and such coming off, potentially due to the fresh CA I'd added to salvage the blank. As I got deeper into it, I began to obtain small streaming shavings. Some minor voids appeared. However, as I got closer to the core, the shavings began to take on the stringy description I've read of acrylics wherein they wrap about the mandrel. These were very fine shavings that would stream out and seemed to float off the blank. I was using a spindle gouge at this point, mostly going off the edge in Richard Ruffin's style which slices very fine shavings while also lightly burnishing the turning. Well, that's what I was aiming for anyway ;-)
I lightly touched the barrel up with a skew, and then sanded with 400 grit followed by MM from 1500 thru to 12000 using all 9 grits. The barrel glowed. I oiled with BLO, burnished with shavings, and applied light coats of CA....

Then I turned to [the] upper barrel -- I took many minutes to drill this one using DriCote on the bit several times. The bit was getting extremely hot during drilling. Normally I can drill a blank in less than a minute. No way with these; not that I can see -- and these are new, sharp bits.

While turning the upper barrel, I immediately began experiencing long, plasticine shavings and continued to do so throughout the blank. It was joyous ;-)
Again, it took a polish beautifully.
I used my typical finishing schedule of MM, oil, CA, and carnuba 'cause that's what I know works at this early stage in my turning career....
Hopefully, I'll be able to get to the second blank by Sunday nite -- I'm looking forward to it.

So far, I think it weighs out as such:
Pros:
Pretty stuff
polishes superbly
turns without difficulty
pens should sell well with these

Cons:
Costly compared to non-stabilized burls [thus, the question is do they have a higher survivability rate than the burls we stabilize with CA while we're turning]
Chemical may be irritating to some folks
Blanks Heat quickly; folks will blow them out while drilling and probably burn their MM.

The second blank reviewed:
The Sunrise Yellow I turned was far easier than the Dusk Blue Dyed Box Elder Burl.
Both had inclusions and voids. The yellow blank drilled easily after my first experience. I used DriCote to keep the bit cool and went slowly without problem. This blank didn't smell as strongly as the first and the shavings were more like wood but still somewhat like an acrylic stream has been described. This blank was straighter than the # 0790--possibly due to less chemical injection. I turned each barrel independently; the lower barrel first, then the upper. The lower had voids which was a shame because neither barrel would have really needed a CA finish -- they were lustrous and glowing after MM and BLO. However, I did a CA finished topcoat buffed with Carnuba due to the voids in the lower barrel.
...
I'd probably buy some of these in a group buy especially for special occasion pens for certain folks.

Thank you again for selecting me to test these; I thoroughly enjoyed this new experience.
Kind regards,
Gary

 

[PenWorks]

Here is what I had to say...................

Here are some test samples from another distributor of stabilized pen blanks sent to me to sample.



The blanks arrived with some flaking on them left over from the chemicals ( I guess)

The sample blanks are the red & green next to some stabilized blanks I pulled from stock fro comparison,

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Another pic of the blanks after I hit them on the belt sander. They did not give off a strong odor

While drilling or cutting. Sometimes stabilize blanks reek of that chemical smell when you cut and drill them.

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I was in the process of a large dip pen order when they arrived, so I did not want to interrupt my production,

So guess what ? These became dip pens. Drilling with a 7mm bit went fine. No wonder on the bit, the blanks

were not hard as rocks to drill. Also they were not as hard as other stabilized blanks while cutting them.
They cut real nice, and again without a lot of smell coming at you.


Here is the red blank about to be sanded

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The green blank had a few little voids, typical of some burls. So instead of a sand and buff, I am going to put a CA finish on this one to fill the voids.

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Here are the finish products. As you can see, the coloring is all the way through. These are pretty thin on the end and no loss of color.
The color is real nice as well, very vibrant. Again the green has the CA finish and the red is a sand and buff.

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Overall, these are very nice blanks. If I were to have purchased them, I would have been happy with my purchase. The green blank had a lot more

Character in the wood than the red. Hope this was helpful to whoever may tackle this group buy if it happens.



Anthony

 

[Darley]

Like your dip pens Anthony especialy the red one. Jeff any price yet for each blank?

 

[jeff]

Serge - I think they retail at Bear Tooth for $5.95 with no minimum quantity (I assume...) and from the manufacturer at $4.50, but they have a minimum of 100 I think.

So unless someone wants to run a bulk buy, your best bet is Bear Tooth Woods.

Someone ought to point Ernie to this Topic for his thoughts on a bulk deal.

PS to my testers... Sorry I made you all rush and then didn't get the info out quickly. Many things got in the way of me following through and I apologize.

 

[jeff]

Maybe we could get some interest going by posting how many we might be interested in:

I'm in for 25 blanks.

 

[JimGo]

I'd probably go for 5-10.

 

[les-smith]

I'll do a minimum of 10.

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

count me in for 15-20

 

[GaryMGg]

I'd do 10-20.

 

[leehljp]

I bought 17 last week from BTW and brought them back to Japan yesterday. I haven't turned any yet, but the blanks are beautiful. Most of them show very nice grain beneath the colors.

 

[Darley]

I will go for 12

 

[Draken]

Ernie doesn't sell the blanks in buckeye burl, spalted maple, maple burl or redwood nor is he selling the jumbo Boxelder burl blanks, so I think as long as we stay away from the one line he does carry (3/4" boxelder burl), there shouldn't be any issues. By the way, Stabilized Woods of America is currently out of stock on the jumbo Boxelder burl, they are supposed to email me once they have stock in. Not sure of the stock situation on the other wood types.

Jeff, as soon as I get to a computer that has the photos on it, I'll email them to you so you can add them to your original post.

 

[Draken]

I've emailed my photos to Jeff, so hopefully they'll get added to his post soon, but I've also added the photos here. My blanks also arrived with some of the chemical flake on the outside, but I didn't worry much about it. The Dusky Blue had some "soft" spots that I encountered while drilling. It wasn't until I turned it that I found some large, natural voids in it. I was surprised they weren't filled with the stabilizer. The large voids posed no problems while turning, and in fact, I feel the stabilization is the only reason the blank held together. Jeff asked for at least one pen to be done without a finish, so this is that one. I've since disassembled it and I'm in the process of applying lacquer to it. Takes a while to fill a void that size...

For the Rose Petal, I tried a torture test. I drilled it straight through without mercy (for a Baron). The blank and the bit got extremely hot, but the blank did not crack or show any other signs of abuse. Turned without any problems, and it too has a minor void in it, which wasn't filled with stabilizer. I went straight for a lacquer finish on this one, but ended up sanding through the lacquer when polishing it up (tyring to hurry so Jeff could post them), so I only have photos of the blanks, not a completed pen. The second round of lacquer is currently in the curing stage (this was before I received the Enduro). Bear in mind these blanks aren't in my photo tent, so they aren't as good as they should be.

I have since ordered two of these blanks from Ernie, for a custom segmentation order. I'm quite pleased with the color penetration of all the blanks I've used so far.

Here is a photo of the blanks I've purchased. They are the Orange Mango and the Sapphire Blue with some black dyed veneer between them. They are shown on the rod I use to apply lacquer. The blank on the left is the Dusky Blue, also getting lacquered. Photo also wasn't taken in the photo booth.

 

[gerryr]

I would be interested in 10-20 blanks.