Latest Pen: Suffering from chip out

[Badabing]

I wanted to show off this beautiful wood and maybe get some advice on turning burl too...

A friend at work ordered a pen from me and wanted a really nice burl wood. I made her an American Classic with Amboyna Burl. The pen turned out really beautiful except for two tiny chip outs in the edges of the top blank. This was a stabilized piece of wood so I didn't expect too much chip out. I took light cuts and had it under control the whole time. I was actually surprised to find these chips when the pen was finished :BangHead:

I usually put a little CA glue around the edges of the tubes on each end of each blank when I turn burl or wood that tends to splinter. However, I didn't think that was necessary with stabilized blanks. Any advice?

Here's the pen. The wood really is purty!

Here's a close up of the top chip (sorry it's blurry).

Here's a close up of the bottom chip out.

The good news is that I offered her this pen for about half price because of the chips. She was more than happy to take it and said that she would not have noticed them anyway. I hate selling imperfect items but I also hate trashing a really nice pen because of minor defects :eusa_doh:

I don't think these chips occurred during the turning, sanding, or finishing. I would have noticed and had the chance to repair/fill them. I think they popped out during assembly. Not that it's any consolation, but I don't want anyone here to think that I don't know what I'm doing (even though I mostly don't know what I'm doing :rotflm

 

[WoodWrangler]

Watch those pen making videos ... they may offer some tips. As I recall, just feather the edges away up front to reduce the chances of that. You may also want to use the skew as you narrow in on the final passes ... watch those videos too. :gar-La;

If they happened during assembly ... then you might be SOL ... not sure how to avoid that (unless you just hand them a bag of parts and tell them to assemble it) :rotflm:

BTW ... beautiful wood. Where'd ya get it?

 

[woodArtz]

Hey Joe,
If I have a chip out or find a hole that needs filling, I make a slurry out of thick CA and some sawdust from the pen blank. I overfill the hole and re-cut or sand. I can usually match the grain pretty well especially in burls. Obviously it's harder to do this at the edge of the blank, but with some practice it's not too bad. Hope that helps.

 

[DaveO]

I thought the same thing about stabilized burls, but I have found them quite difficult to turn. I think that the stabilization just makes them more stable (less prone to shrinking and warping)and firmer, but not easier to turn, and less prone to chip out.
The end result of the stabilization process is a burl blank that behaves like a casted resin blank. It's got the difficulty in turning due to the resin and the difficulty from the wacky grain in the burl. But it is about the only way to be able to utilize many burl species.
Dave