Red Palm Blank Disaster

[jimwill48]

:-( Tried my hand at turning Red Palm last night. The project was supposed to be a Mont Blanc pen. Had my doubts about this wood when I cut the blank to size and it started to peel off long splinters (I use a Compound Miter Saw to cut to length. Went ahead and glued it up the tubes. I then started to turn, I really now was worried when my gouge ( freshly sharpen ) 1st touched the wood, instead of chips it started to come off like long splinters. Played around with tool rest height and angles and it started to turn OK. Got the blank rounded and rough shaped the lower tube, I then switched to a spindlemaster all was going great when all of a sudden the whole lower tube just exploded, it just came apart like a droped a box of straws, never saw anything like it. I have had other blowouts before (rosewood seems to do it once in a while for me when I do BtB slimlines) but this one was amazing in the way it went.

Anyway taking my chances and hoping to salvage something from the black I was able to turn the upper tube and make a keychain out of it. I think from now on I'll pass on the Red Palm but man it sure is a pretty wood. :roll:

James

 

[NCPete]

that is a PRETTY keychain

 

[sapwood]

Great save, it is a fine looking key chain :icon_thum

Roger

 

[jeff...]

:-( Tried my hand at turning Red Palm last night. The project was supposed to be a Mont Blanc pen. Had my doubts about this wood when I cut the blank to size and it started to peel off long splinters (I use a Compound Miter Saw to cut to length. Went ahead and glued it up the tubes. I then started to turn, I really now was worried when my gouge ( freshly sharpen ) 1st touched the wood, instead of chips it started to come off like long splinters. Played around with tool rest height and angles and it started to turn OK. Got the blank rounded and rough shaped the lower tube, I then switched to a spindlemaster all was going great when all of a sudden the whole lower tube just exploded, it just came apart like a droped a box of straws, never saw anything like it. I have had other blowouts before (rosewood seems to do it once in a while for me when I do BtB slimlines) but this one was amazing in the way it went.

Anyway taking my chances and hoping to salvage something from the black I was able to turn the upper tube and make a keychain out of it. I think from now on I'll pass on the Red Palm but man it sure is a pretty wood. :roll:

James

It's no secret that I sell pen blanks over on IAP. A few times I've considered exotics, I have two folks that I can import lumber from with very resonable prices. BUT yours is a text book example of why I will not sell exotic lumber or pen blanks. Every species of tree is a little different. I have enough on my hands just trying to get a handle on whats local to me, let alone wood from forign lands.

All white oak is not created equal - take Irish Bog Oak for example - I ask you what makes a peice of white oak worth 65.00 a BF? Well because it sat in some nasty pond in Ireland for a few years and has turned black :slap: I could fish out all kinds of black nasty logs out of the tar river here in North Carolina or any mud hole for that matter that would be just as black. But if I did the lumber would be considered junk and you guys would most likley think I've finally fallen off my rocker - why? because it's not an exotic, it's just some old nasty water logged wood and it didn't come from some bog in Ireland. On the other hand if I did fish some out - you guys could be the proud owners of some North Carolina Tar River Bottom Black Oak, it just doesn't get any better than that does it? Who needs a bog in Ireland when you got mud holes and the tar river right here in North Carolina?

I just don't get it :BangHead:

 

[Eaglesc]

Red Palm is not a tree( wood) it is a grass.Though I have never turned it "Straight grained" I have turned it cross and bias cut.
Stabilize with CA as you go and try a skew instead of a gouge.
(I don't have a license for a gouge, hence I do most my turning with a skew from start to finish)
As far as IBO I agree it is ugly and a PITA to turn and finish.
The only redeming quality it has is that it is 1500 years old and not petrified.

 

[DaveO]

Another interesting and useless tid-bit of knowledge about Red Palm is that it is the tree that Coconuts come from. Cocos nucifera in the family Arecaceae and it is the only plant in it's genus. It is the most widely grown palm. It is also known as the "Tree of a 1000 Uses". Just about every bit of the tree are used by the people in it's native habitat for food, textile, booze, housing and dye, etc.
And is a PITA to turn :lol: :eusa_doh:

Dave