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Today's video:
My inspiration for this project came from exactly what you might expect: burl pens! Not only does burl wood have amazing grain patterns, it also usually exhibits irregular edges (with plenty of hills and valleys) that look great when cast in resin and turned down. The only problem is, burl is expensive! However, there are a number of woodworkers here and KZread that have played around with the idea of breaking planks of wood before casting them in resin, and I've always found the results of this technique to look strikingly similar to what you might get had you used burl. And so, for this project, I decided to try out the broken wood method with pens! The pens in this video were made from four different types of wood: jatoba, oak, poplar, and pine. I first cut the larger planks into smaller (~1x1 inch) strips that would fit into my pen blank moulds before securing them to my work bench and breaking them with a sledge hammer (this was fun!). Once broken, I cut off the broken ends (leaving enough room between for the resin) and placed them at either end of my silicone pen blanks mould. For the resin, I used Alumilite's clear cast epoxy resin, and for dyes, I used mica pigments from both Black Diamond (green and pink) and SquidPoxy (gold and blue). These were left to fully cure over 48 hours in a pressure pot. Once cured, I bored out a hole in each of the blanks and inserted the brass tubes for the pens. These were left to sit for another 24 hours so the CA glue could fully cure. I then turned the blanks down on my lathe, sanded them up to 600 grit, and applied 8-12 layers of thin CA glue. I then sanded the CA finish up to 12000 grit with micro mesh and polished the pen pieces with some plastic polish.
If I were to do things differently:
This was a quick and fun project, and I'm really happy with how they turned out! I think the pine and poplar (gold and blue) pens in particular came out with a very "burl-like" look, which was exactly what I was going for. The only thing I think I'd do a bit differently in the future is be a bit more picky with the quality of the wood break. Since this was my first time trying out this method, I only broke one piece of each species and simply used whatever I got. However, both the jatoba and the oak broke... 'uncleanly' I suppose is the best way to put it, and in the end, neither quite had the look I was initially going for. Other than that, it would be great to try out some different wood species and mica combos in the future should I revisit this!
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Want to use the same pigments shown in this video? Check out the following affiliate code for a discount on SquidPoxy products! squidpoxy.ca/?sacode=duo8gk&u...
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Key equipment/products I used:
Rikon 70-220 VSR Midi Lathe: www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/...
Pen Mandrel: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B004...
Woodstock 1/2 inch bowl gouge: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005...
Alumilite clear cast: www.alumilite.com/resins/amaz...
SquidPoxy mica pigments: squidpoxy.ca/products/mica-po...
Black Diamond mica pigments: www.blackdiamondpigments.com
Ballpoint pen kits: www.penblanks.ca/Budget-Strea...
Pen Blank Chuck: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07C...
Pen Press: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005...
Music provided by Epidemic Sound
Alpines - Onda Norte
Sun is Shining - Tomas Skyldeberg
Mystic River - Tomas Skyldeberg