Woodturning | I lit my pens on fire!

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Today's video:

If you're like me, you've seen plenty of charred wood projects all over YouTube, but I personally have yet to see anyone try this idea out with pens. Unsure of how different woods would take to the flame, I decided to try out three different species; maple, oak, and jatoba. I'm glad I did, because I got some very different results! I first set up the pen blanks by super gluing the brass tubes inside and let them sit for a day. I then turned them down to about 99% of their finished shape, sanded them up to 600 grit, and wiped them down with some alcohol. Next up was the fire! I started with maple first, and I decided to blacken the entire blank (but not to the point where the wood was crumbling). It might not come through well on camera, but the blackened maple maintained 100% of its marble-like appearance, which looked awesome! For the oak, I noticed right away that the deeper grains in the wood burned much faster than the rest, and so for this piece, I chose to just give the blanks a light torching. The result was that I simply managed to bring out the natural grain fibers even more, which I think is a really cool look. Last, I burned the jatoba, and since it seemed to burn in a similar manner to the maple, I decided to give it a bit of "swirl" effect, leaving some of the wood untouched. I think I might like this one the best! Let me know down below in the comments which one is your favourite and what you think I should try next time!

After the burning, I removed all the surface ash I could with some fine steel wool, added a CA finish, and wet sanded up to 12000 grit with micro mesh. Last, I finished the pens with some plastic polish.

If I were to do things differently:

I thoroughly enjoyed this project, and I'd love to revisit it someday with some different burning methods. One immediate thought is to burn the wood more intensely. Most videos I've seen that used burned wood for various purposes REALLY burn their wood, to the point it's crumbling and cracked. I'm not sure if that's feasible for something as small and thin as pen wood, but I think it could look really interesting. Let me know your thoughts below!

Key equipment/products I used:

Music provided by Epidemic Sound

Hang Gliding - Tomas Skyldeberg
Sing To Me - Sven Karlsson

[EmbrunReaperspitcrew]

TY for making this video, it has helped me in trying that project.

[smeefamily]

Very nice work. The burning is different. I might try that technique. Take care. From: Petawawa, Ontario, Canada.