Wenge

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mdwilliams999

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Joined
Apr 18, 2011
Messages
73
Location
Glenville, NY
Ok, does anyone have any advice for turning Wenge? I love the wood and so do my customers, but the small but plentiful tear-out is terrible. I am sharpening my chisels to 150, and don't have this issue on many other woods. I turn on high speed and take very little off at a time, but this doesn't seem to make a difference. I also sanded like I've never sanded before and still couldn't ge ta completely smooth surface - not even close. Is it just the characteristic of the wood or is it me?

Mike
 
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<grins> Of course it is you <grins>


Wenge is pretty coarse and need to be cut down hill with the grain -- scary sharp skew is best for me. Scary sharp starts with shave the hair on your arm sharp. Cut the wood the way it wants to be cut -- and direction rules otherwise are not applicable.

I find that sanding with backing helps control the outcome better than use of flexible paper or similar.

Nice wood when finished and polished!!!
 
Similar to what Carl said, you may to try stabilizing the surface with thin CA when you are getting close to final size. You may have to reapply after every few passes of the skew. Good luck!!
 
Same as Ken said. I do that and still ruined 2 out of the last three. I sand between Ca drench and still can have problems. The last one I finished with lacquer, which I don't normally do. It did turn out ok, but to me, not worth the effort given the variety of wood out there. Just my 2 cents worth. Or maybe less.
Russ
 
Wenge is too dense to allow the CA to penetrate very far into the wood so it really won't be much help but every little bit helps . I get very good results with a skew and a shearing cut on any of the tearout prone woods . The tearout happens because the fibers of the wood are tough but not too well connected to each other , by using a shearing cut you are not ripping the fibers but slicing them off .
For those of you that are going to make a pen for the PITH , this is a very important technique to practice since Pine is a softwood and tearout can be a very big problem with it .
 
Ken, as I'm new to pen turning, are you suggesting that you hold the skew on it's side so that the cutting edge of the skew is running vertical? I am sharpening with a 6" grinding wheel with a norton (white) 150 grit. I'm doing this dry (no water or paste etc.). Believe me, this is much improvement over my old 60 grit wheel. I may try going out again tonight and try another wenge. It sounds like starting with 100 grit (instead of 150) may help get past the tear out.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I also need to try the CA glue option. I currently have medium and thick. Sounds like I can try the medium to start. I'm wondering if the wood chuck would be a better solution for wenge and other similar woods.

Mike
 
I would try the sandpaper method as well. I make a lot of pens with Wenge with my grade 8 students and they have no problem leaving an extra 1/8th to be sanded down (takes just a few min of sanding, way less than CA). Just my 2 cents but it does work great.

Don.
 
a couple other thoughts: are you gluing the tubes liberally? (i have found if glue is missed it will chunk out) is it cross cut/cross grain wood (i have found cross grain difficult to turn w/o chunking out...)
 
mdwilliams999 said:
Ken, as I'm new to pen turning, are you suggesting that you hold the skew on it's side so that the cutting edge of the skew is running vertical? I am sharpening with a 6" grinding wheel with a norton (white) 150 grit. I'm doing this dry (no water or paste etc.). Believe me, this is much improvement over my old 60 grit wheel. I may try going out again tonight and try another wenge. It sounds like starting with 100 grit (instead of 150) may help get past the tear out.



Mike -- shear cuts take off little curly whispy shavings -- generally I would describe it a higher towards the top with the point lagging behind the heel about 15-25 degrees (from vertical) - bevel rubbing and just contatact at the sweet spot to take shavings --- moving the skew slowly as to not make spirals in the wood.

Wenge and shear cuts are the hard way to get experience -- but preservere and you will get there.

Looking at the edge of the skew you should see no reflections from the edge (dull spots) and it should shave hairs.

I am one who hones my edge of the skew with a diamond hone (600 grit as I remember -- Alan Lacer hone). Any sharpening method will get the skew sharp -- and finer usually provides a more refined edge for finish cuts. You should be able to shave with a 150 white AlP wheel. Honing means fewer trips to the grinder and more turning.

When it gets as good as it gets -- build a top coat (I like lacquer, Enduro, and CA) smooth it to a glass smooth surface (may have to shear scrape to level the surface) then polish the surface of the topcoat.

With wenge -- and the texture it may take 2-10 applications of surface top coat and after curing shear scraping back the high spots to get that glass smooth surface.
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