I'm in love. I sew, and have always admired vintage sewing tools--no plastic--because of the beautiful materials and workmanship. Having to rip a sewing mistake using your seam ripper would be less of a chore. Thank you.
Great result, Bob. I turned some black palm a few years ago (handles for dead blow hammers) and it was a disaster. NEVER wanted to touch palm again. I never thought of stabilizing it; now I know the trick to success. Thanks.
Bob, glad to see you finally got around to turning the palm...looks great! I don't thing the wood hardener is the issue with the CA being tacky, I think it is the wood. I had the same problem but did not have accelerator at the time. I will defiantly go the wood hardener rout next time. I was just thinking about turning another pen with the palm so I will soak it in the hardener. Glad you enjoyed the wood and happy turning.
Whenever I use the same hardener I wrap the spalted wood in aluminum foil and heat it in an old toaster oven for a couple of hours. That takes care of the drying process for me. Try it if you still have the other blank to work with.
Good job Bob! I have turned some black palm for a slimline pen. And while it was not the easiest wood (sort of grass I guess) to turn, I think it was a bit easier than the palm you turned. I had a bit of fiber tear out, but used thin CA to help stabilize the blank. I tried a CA finish to no avail, the CA kept hazing over. A turning friend told me black palm has a bit of oil in it and to clean it first with denatured alcohol or naptha and then put thin CA on it immediately. That seemed to do the trick. It's not something I will turn again, not too much fun.
+rgoodleaf Another turner just sent me three black palm blanks to turn. I'll probably shoot a little video when I do turn one of them. The info you just sent will help me avoid some mistakes. Thank you for sharing. Regards, Bob
I think you made the right call to stabilize. I have cactus juice type system here. Knowing what I know about palm (probably real similar to your knowledge) I would have started with a stabilized blank. I have one concern with putting ca on then sanding and then putting on a ca finish and sanding again. You can probably get away with it on a very light colored blank, but if this was a dark wood you would notice white specks under the finish. I haven't been able to avoid this on repairs after applying a finish. I usually have to sand or scrape all the finish off and start over.
+Mike Bratcher Thank you for the info on the double dipping with C/A. I will take a close look at the blank to see hot the C/Aed areas look. I do not want specks if I can avoid them.
I did my first and last black palm was my maybe 6th pen. one tip I had read to always work down hill so from the middle out. but as I have posted before turning black palm is like shaving a ferret. in the end someone is going to get hurt.
Hi Bob that turned out nice. Have you seen the videos out there where they use a product called Cactus Juice? As with Cactus Juice you may have been able to heat your blank in the oven to about 80 degrees Celsius (180F ) to dry it through. You could soak some paper towel in the hardener and bake it to see what happens. Cheers. Rob.
+Rob Hampton Hello Rob, I have watched a few videos on it. I'm not set up with a vacuum chamber to efficiently use cactus juice. Maybe one day but got now, I'm on a low budget. :^) Bob
I wonder if the wood hardener would work on the construction paper blank. It is as porous and weak as the wood you were just turning. I was thinking if you dipped each strip of paper in wood hardener then clamp it up and ignore it for a week while it sits in a warm spot. I bet it would work. :-D
+Marcy Cooper Great minds think alike. I had written that same note in my shop ideas book. Once I get through this show and can get back to trying other things I will surly give that a test. Bob
Do you know if the palm was from the trunk or a frond? I have access to a lot of fronds, but very few trucks. I'm going to experiment on a frond and I'll let you know.
Hello John, I honestly do not know what part of the palm tree it came from, that blank was given to me so I have no provenance. If I had to guess I would say it was a trunk blank. Please do let me know what you learn from the fronds. Regards, Bob
Bob, I always enjoy your turning videos (my favorite source, actually). Now, I have a question that arose from a dilemma I experienced. I notice the direction in which you insert the "spring clips" into the blank. I've watched videos of seam rippers being made and have seen people insert them in both directions (concerning whether you insert the "open" end or the "closed" end first). On two seam rippers I made recently for two of my wife's good friends, I had major problems. One seam ripper would allow the rippers to fall completely out when I tilted them away from the horizontal. I was stumped as to why that had occurred. So, I went back to the directions sheet that came from PennState Industries. No specific instructions were shown as to which orientation the spring clips were to be inserted!!! (MAJOR omission, in my opinion!!) So, what was I to do? I took a punch that fit tightly into the 8mm tubing and was able to finally drive out the spring clips. I had inserted them "open end" first. When I examined the earlier seam rippers I made, I noticed that I had inserted them the same way you did in this video (closed end first -- see 18:54 in your video) and they worked perfectly. So, on the two "flawed" seam rippers that, while beautiful from turning (one was OliveWood and the other was Koa), they were dismal failures as seam rippers. And, I opened a couple of new seam ripper kits and stole the spring clips from them, then inserted them as you show here. The seam rippers now worked great. I have contacted PennState Industries TWICE about this situation and asked them to update their instruction sheet. All I have received from them so far is SILENCE! I wish they would publish a video explaining this, too. And, maybe they should include on their instruction sheet a graphic that indicates this proper procedure. Have I missed something, somewhere? How did you know which end of the spring clip to insert first? Are there clear instructions given somewhere that I missed totally? Or, do you just have special intuition/insight to know how to orient the spring clips properly? Thanks for all you do!
Hello Larry, I only knew to insert them that way from trial and error. I placed them in incorrectly the first time too. I really wish Penn State listened more to their customers. Many of their instructions are lacking the full detail they need. Regards, Bob
@@RJBWoodTurner Well, sir, I FINALLY got a reply from PennState about this issue. They indicated that the directions are, in fact, printed on the instruction sheet. (Lame excuse) They consider the graphic shown in "Diagram A" to indicate, clearly (their word), the insertion direction. I replied to them that, while that graphic is shown, there is zero accompanying text to indicate that the orientation of the retainer spring is recommended for placement inside the turned seam ripper. The graphic shows the retaining spring to be inserted with the "solid" end first, followed by the "open" end being closest to the throat of the ripper. I'll try that in the future, but it actually seems counterintuitive to me. Thanks for taking time to give me a salient response, Bob. All the best to you and your family!
If you don't mind my asking, how do you like the Rockler dust collection hood? I've been thinking about getting one and wonder what you think of yours. Thank you!
+Scott B. Turner Helpo Scott, It works great for sanding sucking up all the dust. It's not that great for chips while turning. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it an 8. Bob
yet another beautiful blank Rob .I have a question about ca finishes I would like to do a few knife handles with it but they would be already fitted to a full rang blade do you know how I could us ca on it as it's not turning on a lathe I wondered if wipeing it over it in layers then sanding between each few coats. I'm not sure if it would work I. something that's not turning on a lathe as it would be much slower to apply .What do you think as I know you know what you are doing and have way more experance with the ca than myself. thanks in advance and I can't wait for the next project with you I really enjoyed the inside out turning your right she was the most pretty but damn sir that looked hard tho your extremely skilled. proud moment for sure
+Nick Kendall Thank you Nick, I think your biggest challenge would be keeping waviness out of the C/A. Are you sure there's no way to finish the scales before they're applied to the knife? I bet if you hot glued it to a dowel so you could hold it without touching the surface then you could apply the C/A to a towel and wipe it on like a wipe on Poly. I'd be willing to bet it would work. Do you have a scale that wasn't nice enough to be made no to a knife you could test on? Bob
brilliant idea never thought of that. I also need to buy some wipe on poly if never used it in New to all this but I'm a inventive kinda guy I love to upcycke things it's a huge part of who I am
I'm in love. I sew, and have always admired vintage sewing tools--no plastic--because of the beautiful materials and workmanship. Having to rip a sewing mistake using your seam ripper would be less of a chore. Thank you.
+karodora Thank you.
Regards,
Bob
That is a great looking vase, Bob. I think it turned out beautiful.
+Jerry Bell Thank you Jerry.
Regards,
Bob
Great save Bob. The ripper looks fantastic.
+TexasScott Thank you Scott.
Regards,
Bob
That looks great Bob . The wood hardener did the trick . Have a good day.
+glen mckelvey Thank you Glen.
Bob
Thank you Bob, that was great. Lovely to see how well it turned out
+Val Borchardt Thank you Val,
It was challenging but fun to turn.
Bob
Great result, Bob. I turned some black palm a few years ago (handles for dead blow hammers) and it was a disaster. NEVER wanted to touch palm again. I never thought of stabilizing it; now I know the trick to success. Thanks.
+Mark Hazlewood Thank you Mark,
I have three black palm blanks so I'll try turning one of them soon. We'll see how it goes.
Bob
that turned out great Bob I always wondered how that would work turning Palm wood. thanks for sharing
+Opa's Workshop Thank you Opa,
Regards,
Bib
Another fantastic job Bob.
~Scott
+Hoosierchef70 Thank you Scott.
Bob
Bob, glad to see you finally got around to turning the palm...looks great! I don't thing the wood hardener is the issue with the CA being tacky, I think it is the wood. I had the same problem but did not have accelerator at the time. I will defiantly go the wood hardener rout next time. I was just thinking about turning another pen with the palm so I will soak it in the hardener. Glad you enjoyed the wood and happy turning.
+Louis Currier Thank you Louis,
Once I used the hardener the blank turned great.
Bob
Great lookin seam ripper. I use palm a lot I like the look of it. I vacuum stabilize them before turning and use really sharp tools.
That’s a good idea, palm is tough to turn.
Regards,
Bob
Whenever I use the same hardener I wrap the spalted wood in aluminum foil and heat it in an old toaster oven for a couple of hours. That takes care of the drying process for me. Try it if you still have the other blank to work with.
+Stanley Zalumskis Nice idea Stanley,
I just got a toaster oven for the shop to try some polymer clay stuff. I'll give that a try.
Bob
lovely, thank you!
+Nikolay Lozovoy Thank you Nikolay.
Bob
Nice job!
Thank you
Regards,
Bob
Good job Bob! I have turned some black palm for a slimline pen. And while it was not the easiest wood (sort of grass I guess) to turn, I think it was a bit easier than the palm you turned. I had a bit of fiber tear out, but used thin CA to help stabilize the blank. I tried a CA finish to no avail, the CA kept hazing over. A turning friend told me black palm has a bit of oil in it and to clean it first with denatured alcohol or naptha and then put thin CA on it immediately. That seemed to do the trick. It's not something I will turn again, not too much fun.
+rgoodleaf Another turner just sent me three black palm blanks to turn. I'll probably shoot a little video when I do turn one of them. The info you just sent will help me avoid some mistakes. Thank you for sharing.
Regards,
Bob
I think you made the right call to stabilize. I have cactus juice type system here. Knowing what I know about palm (probably real similar to your knowledge) I would have started with a stabilized blank. I have one concern with putting ca on then sanding and then putting on a ca finish and sanding again. You can probably get away with it on a very light colored blank, but if this was a dark wood you would notice white specks under the finish. I haven't been able to avoid this on repairs after applying a finish. I usually have to sand or scrape all the finish off and start over.
+Mike Bratcher Thank you for the info on the double dipping with C/A. I will take a close look at the blank to see hot
the C/Aed areas look. I do not want specks if I can avoid them.
I did my first and last black palm was my maybe 6th pen.
one tip I had read to always work down hill so from the middle out.
but as I have posted before turning black palm is like shaving a ferret. in the end someone is going to get hurt.
+Cliff Hartle LOL,
I hear ya.
Bob
Hi Bob that turned out nice. Have you seen the videos out there where they use a product called Cactus Juice? As with Cactus Juice you may have been able to heat your blank in the oven to about 80 degrees Celsius (180F ) to dry it through. You could soak some paper towel in the hardener and bake it to see what happens. Cheers. Rob.
+Rob Hampton Hello Rob,
I have watched a few videos on it. I'm not set up with a vacuum chamber to efficiently use cactus juice. Maybe one day but got now, I'm on a low budget. :^)
Bob
Can you do a video on selling tips for pens and pen related items? Like pricing ideas and the like. Thank you if you can, and no big if you can't.
+JR Lenard Hmmmm... Let me put some thought into that.
Bob
I wonder if the wood hardener would work on the construction paper blank. It is as porous and weak as the wood you were just turning.
I was thinking if you dipped each strip of paper in wood hardener then clamp it up and ignore it for a week while it sits in a warm spot. I bet it would work. :-D
+Marcy Cooper Great minds think alike. I had written that same note in my shop ideas book. Once I get through this show and can get back to trying other things I will surly give that a test.
Bob
that looks lovely where do you get the seam ripper kit from xx
Thank you, I purchased the ripper kits from Pen State: www.pennstateind.com.Regards,bob
Seam Ripper? Is that anything like the bodice rippers my Mom used to read?
Hello, I’m not sure what a bodice ripper is...
Regards,
Bob
Do you know if the palm was from the trunk or a frond? I have access to a lot of fronds, but very few trucks. I'm going to experiment on a frond and I'll let you know.
Hello John,
I honestly do not know what part of the palm tree it came from, that blank was given to me so I have no provenance. If I had to guess I would say it was a trunk blank.
Please do let me know what you learn from the fronds.
Regards,
Bob
Bob, I always enjoy your turning videos (my favorite source, actually). Now, I have a question that arose from a dilemma I experienced.
I notice the direction in which you insert the "spring clips" into the blank. I've watched videos of seam rippers being made and have seen people insert them in both directions (concerning whether you insert the "open" end or the "closed" end first).
On two seam rippers I made recently for two of my wife's good friends, I had major problems. One seam ripper would allow the rippers to fall completely out when I tilted them away from the horizontal. I was stumped as to why that had occurred. So, I went back to the directions sheet that came from PennState Industries. No specific instructions were shown as to which orientation the spring clips were to be inserted!!! (MAJOR omission, in my opinion!!) So, what was I to do?
I took a punch that fit tightly into the 8mm tubing and was able to finally drive out the spring clips. I had inserted them "open end" first. When I examined the earlier seam rippers I made, I noticed that I had inserted them the same way you did in this video (closed end first -- see 18:54 in your video) and they worked perfectly. So, on the two "flawed" seam rippers that, while beautiful from turning (one was OliveWood and the other was Koa), they were dismal failures as seam rippers. And, I opened a couple of new seam ripper kits and stole the spring clips from them, then inserted them as you show here.
The seam rippers now worked great.
I have contacted PennState Industries TWICE about this situation and asked them to update their instruction sheet. All I have received from them so far is SILENCE! I wish they would publish a video explaining this, too. And, maybe they should include on their instruction sheet a graphic that indicates this proper procedure.
Have I missed something, somewhere? How did you know which end of the spring clip to insert first? Are there clear instructions given somewhere that I missed totally? Or, do you just have special intuition/insight to know how to orient the spring clips properly?
Thanks for all you do!
Hello Larry,
I only knew to insert them that way from trial and error. I placed them in incorrectly the first time too. I really wish Penn State listened more to their customers. Many of their instructions are lacking the full detail they need.
Regards,
Bob
@@RJBWoodTurner Well, sir, I FINALLY got a reply from PennState about this issue. They indicated that the directions are, in fact, printed on the instruction sheet. (Lame excuse) They consider the graphic shown in "Diagram A" to indicate, clearly (their word), the insertion direction. I replied to them that, while that graphic is shown, there is zero accompanying text to indicate that the orientation of the retainer spring is recommended for placement inside the turned seam ripper. The graphic shows the retaining spring to be inserted with the "solid" end first, followed by the "open" end being closest to the throat of the ripper. I'll try that in the future, but it actually seems counterintuitive to me.
Thanks for taking time to give me a salient response, Bob. All the best to you and your family!
Ive got some Brazilian cherry id like to turn into a pen... have you ever used it before?
+Ryan Wethington Yes,
It will make a beautiful pen. It's hard as nails and smells nice while drilling and turning.
Bob
If you don't mind my asking, how do you like the Rockler dust collection hood? I've been thinking about getting one and wonder what you think of yours. Thank you!
+Scott B. Turner Helpo Scott,
It works great for sanding sucking up all the dust. It's not that great for chips while turning. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it an 8.
Bob
yet another beautiful blank Rob .I have a question about ca finishes I would like to do a few knife handles with it but they would be already fitted to a full rang blade do you know how I could us ca on it as it's not turning on a lathe I wondered if wipeing it over it in layers then sanding between each few coats. I'm not sure if it would work I. something that's not turning on a lathe as it would be much slower to apply .What do you think as I know you know what you are doing and have way more experance with the ca than myself. thanks in advance and I can't wait for the next project with you I really enjoyed the inside out turning your right she was the most pretty but damn sir that looked hard tho your extremely skilled. proud moment for sure
+Nick Kendall Thank you Nick,
I think your biggest challenge would be keeping waviness out of the C/A. Are you sure there's no way to finish the scales before they're applied to the knife? I bet if you hot glued it to a dowel so you could hold it without touching the surface then you could apply the C/A to a towel and wipe it on like a wipe on Poly.
I'd be willing to bet it would work. Do you have a scale that wasn't nice enough to be made no to a knife you could test on?
Bob
brilliant idea never thought of that. I also need to buy some wipe on poly if never used it in New to all this but I'm a inventive kinda guy I love to upcycke things it's a huge part of who I am
+Nick Kendall It is fun to turn something useless into something new and useful.
Bob