Finishing pens with made of acrylic/wood hybrid

[btaylor13]

Hi all,

I have a nice pen blank which is an acrylic/ wood hybrid. I’m just not sure how to finish when turned. Normally I sand up to 600 grit then use sanding sealer and then melamine and finally Canuba wax for my wooden pens.

Any thoughts on the best finish for my hybrid blank would be much appreciated.

Brian

 

[flexi]

Hi Brian,
The wood still needs sealing/finishing I treat the same as wood, which is close to your method described.
Good luck

 

[btaylor13]

Great - thanks Flexi

 

[darrenreid1967]

Melamine or CA is what a lot of makers use. I prefer CA as my choice of finish. Then it is whether I want a matte, satin or high gloss finish to the pen. That determines how far I go with my finishing techniques to achieve that.

 

[Phil Dart]

A lot depends on who made the blank in my experience. Best practise, according to many, is to stabilise the wood before casting, which in essense means that the wood is plasticised and as far as finishing is concerned, it can be treated as an acrylic. Lots of blank makers probably don't stabilise first though, but even so, if it's porus and its cast under pressure, it will probaly still have taken in some of the resin, and therefore there is still a strong argument for treating it as an acrylic.

I find the best way forward is to make a judgement when you're turning it. If it seems to behave like untreated wood under the gouge, then you'll have to finish it like wood, but if it seems to be "resiny", then maybe an acrylic-like treatment will do the job.

 

[Gadget-UK]

Exactly what Phil has said.
I do both Hybrids - Stabilised and Unstabilised as Hybrids both have a different feel when turning and both turn out different in the end.
I prefer the stabilised blanks (I do them myself), they do turn out better and the finish/feel is better as well.