best use of the wood

[carlor]

Hi folks,

I managed to salvage some old maple hardwood flooring that I want to turn into pens as remembrances of the school it came out of and I'm trying to figure out the best way to use it.

I cleaned the wood up and I'm left with basically 3/4" thick by 1 1/4" wide. If I rip it right down the middle, I'll be left with about 3/4" x 5/8" which would be cutting it really close (practically impossible) to use for Sierras, Europeans, etc. I think pretty much all I'd be able to do would be Slimlines.

I could rip it to be 3/4" x 3/4" which would leave a piece 3/4" x 1/2" if everything was perfect. I could make a wider variety of pens with the 3/4 stock but not as many. I guess I could use the 1/2" left-over for slimlines if you think that would be enough wood (it's been a while since I turned a slimline and I think it was always with 3/4" stock.

I'm thinking the best bet would be to try the second option of not ripping down the middle. Any thoughts? Also, what would be the best colour combination with the light Maple? I'm thinking gold instead of silver but colour combinations are not my forte. (Just ask my wife... because apparently brown pants and blue shirts DON'T go together.)


Thanks,

Carlo.

[Crickett]

In my non-expert opinion I would go with option 2 in case there are any miscalculations then you will end up with at least one pen blank.

Personally, not seeing the wood, (no picture??) I would go with gold or gold titanium if it warrants the price of better plating.

[Curly]

If the boards are still long (not trimmed to length) You have the option of cutting on an angle [/////////] to get full 3/4" squares and exposing a bit of more grain at the same time. Yield will be less but maybe better than ripping.

Pete

[carlor]

Oooh. Cutting on an angle. I like that. Talk about thinking outside the box!

I'll give that a try on one of the boards.


Thanks,

Carlo.

[DaveC]

I agree with Marla. Gold would compliment the maple. Perhaps copper also.

I find that 1/2 inch is fine for slimlines. I often rip hardwood flooring which is usually only 1/2 or so thick. Out of a bunch of maple flooring pieces, I found one what has a lot of figuring. So, it now in a bunch of 1/2 inch blanks.

[carlor]

Here are a few (quick but crappy) photos. I took a scrap piece, turned it round and sanded to 400. I put one coat of BLO on the right hand side because I had heard that it makes the grain "pop" and then put 2 quick CA coats on the whole thing just to get a feel for what the finished product would look like. After I was finished, I couldn't tell the difference between the BLO/CA and straight CA.

Now I need to make a taper jig for the table saw to try cutting a flooring piece at an angle to try for 3/4" x 3/4" blanks as was suggested by Curly.


Carlo.

Originally Posted by Crickett

In my non-expert opinion I would go with option 2 in case there are any miscalculations then you will end up with at least one pen blank.

Personally, not seeing the wood, (no picture??) I would go with gold or gold titanium if it warrants the price of better plating.

[Rick Gibson]

With straight grained maple there really isn't much grain to pop. I think the grain pop is because of the different absorption rates depending on the direction of the grain. I've found dripping the CA onto the wood then wiping it off works just as well plus you don't get the yellowing that BLO sometimes causes. I just use the BLO as a lubricant for the paper towel as I rub the blank to cure the CA.

[carlor]

Yeah. It was an experiment to see what happened with the BLO but I was surprised that it appeared no different that the CA-only side. I just finished a walnut pen with CA-only and had a lot of trouble. I may just go back to using a bit of BLO to help smooth the CA.


Thanks,

Carlo.

[Monophoto]

I picked up a good supply of very nice maple at the JK Adams factory store in Dorset, VT. It's actually scraps left over from their manufacturing process (wine racks, cutting boards and other kitchen items) and is sold as 'kindling' - but the clerk told me that they wouldn't object if I used it for turning.

Some maple is not highly figured - but that doesn't mean that there is no grain. Actually, the subtle grain of clear maple is quite beautiful. Turns nicely, and finishes very well with BLO/CA.

Options to add interest to pens include segmenting with contrasting woods or adding ornamentation. Does the school have a color? Why not add a school color ring using embossing powder?

I've also experimented with drilling holes in the blank, and inserting dowels made from a contrasting wood. The other day I made a very nice bottle stopper from maple with a couple of walnut dowels inserted into the blank with the grain. You can also intentionally insert the dowel into the blank at an angle - so that the resulting pattern on the finished piece is oval rather than a circle. I've used both thick CA and ordinary PVA to glue in the dowels. It helps to sand the dowels a bit so that they are very slightly smaller than the hole they are being forced into.

[carlor]

Hi there,

I just posted a couple of photos of finished pens using this maple and they did turn very nicely.

I had been thinking of adding a lamination to the pens. One of the school's colours was maroon so I was thinking of a strip of bloodwood. It would add some interest to the finished pens, but I wonder about sanding contamination between the maple and bloodwood. The other thing is that there are apparently some problems keeping the colour of the bloodwood after finishing. I'll have to look into that again.


Thanks,

Carlo.

[carlor]

Originally Posted by Curly

If the boards are still long (not trimmed to length) You have the option of cutting on an angle [/////////] to get full 3/4" squares and exposing a bit of more grain at the same time. Yield will be less but maybe better than ripping.

Pete

So, I took a look at doing some angled cuts, but with the 5 1/2" blanks for slimlines, the angle has to be so steep that it doesn't save anything. I haven't looked into cross cutting for the shorter Sierra style yet. That might result in some savings.

Carlo.