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Coloured pencil blank

Steve68

Full Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
Posts
310
Location
Suffolk UK
First Name
Steven
Evening turners.

I made a few coloured pencil blanks today and decided to follow the tutorial on here.
The making of the blanks went well but the turning was another matter.
I'm wondering if it's because I bought cheapy pencils? I glued them all together really well and stopped every few passes to drizzle with thin CA but still they chipped badly and tore very easily. Does anyone have any experience turning these blanks and have a preferred type of pencil to use? I feel they need to be a much thicker and tougher type of wood.

Cheers,
Steve.
 

flexi

Executive Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Posts
6,145
Location
Maidstone
First Name
mark
I have made my own blanks....pencils from WHSmiths and Titebond glue.....mine I cut at an angle.....as Brad said Sharp tools light cuts, biggest problem I had was with the colours staining the woods when sanding.....so back to the skew all went OK:thumbs:
 

Steve68

Full Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
Posts
310
Location
Suffolk UK
First Name
Steven
Mark, are the WHSmith pencils those nice close grain type? (If that makes sense?) The cheapy ones I bought wre that "fibrous" kind of wood that rips and tears as if it's still wet. I've thrown the blanks in the bin and kept the dark coloured leftover pencils for marking centres on light blanks. :thumbs:
 

Bammer

Fellow
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Posts
1,480
Location
Cambridge
First Name
Brad
Mark, are the WHSmith pencils those nice close grain type? (If that makes sense?) The cheapy ones I bought wre that "fibrous" kind of wood that rips and tears as if it's still wet. I've thrown the blanks in the bin and kept the dark coloured leftover pencils for marking centres on light blanks. :thumbs:

Send me one, I’ll turn it :winking:
 

Steve68

Full Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
Posts
310
Location
Suffolk UK
First Name
Steven
Send me one, I’ll turn it :winking:

Brad, PM me your address and I'll send you a couple of packs. They were 79p a pack from my local hardware shop so high quality stuff :chuckle:

I'll totally admit it's more my incompetence than anything so I'm sure an experienced spinner would get better results. I'm more annoyed I threw 8 quids worth of CA glue into making them :rant:

Go on.... you know you wanna.... :thumbs:
 

Dalboy

Executive Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2014
Posts
7,676
Location
Kent
First Name
Derek
I know what you mean with the cheap pencils. I use some for marking out and every time you sharpen them they never cut the tips properly as well as the lead keeps breaking.

As said sharp tools and take it easy
 
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