Spalted Maple and Orange Crush....

So I decided to turn a pen using one of the spalted maple blanks I posted a couple blogs ago. I am extremely disappointed in these blanks. They were advertised as being stabilized using a pressure injected acrylic. Stabilization is used primarily to strengthen softer woods, like spalted woods which are actually a diseased wood. The black lines and are caused by a fungusm and this makes the wood extremely soft and difficult to turn without tearing big chunks out of it. Anyway, One of the nice side effects of properly stabilized wood is that it usually will polish up to a high gloss shine without too much difficulty. Anyway, these blanks weren't stabilized, just brushed on the outside with a resin. The end result is that I have 4 extremely soft pen blanks that require a lot more work than I hoped.

So here's the pen I turned tonight. Used A LOT of CA glue to strengthen it during the turning to keep it from tearing. Was basically a huge pain in the ass....

I plan on ordering a batch of stabilized burls and spalts here shortly so hopefully I'll have some real eye popping work coming up. I think I'm going to look into a pressure tank as well so I can stabilize my own blanks, and Bunky can cast her own acrylic blanks.

And just because I can, here's a pic of the pen I did for AutumnRocks last week...