# Ever Turn Powder???  (Cactus Juice Stabilized blank review)



## el_d

About 4 weeks ago I went to Curtis' (Mesquiteman) shop. He had been working on his "CACTUS JUICE" setup, pretty cool by the way, and he pulls out this blank of Spanish Oak burl that was VERY punky. The blank was practically falling apart to the point of "powdering" my hands. And he says hes gonna stabilze this.... 

 The following week I received the same blank from him that had been stabilized with his "Cactus Juice". And I got to meet Justin(Timebandit) and got some nice stuff from him too. :biggrin:

 Curtis asked me for some feedback, So here is what I observed with the stabilized blank. 

 The blank drilled well, nice and solid, not as before. I used Gorilla glue to tube the blank and turned on high with my WC. 
 The oak turned alot better than expected, especially after I saw how it started out. The harder wood turned as normal making large chips but the punky part "powdered" the way tru-stone does but stayed together surprisingly well. The cutter on my WC wasnt new so I took it slow and easy down to the size to fit on one of LAULAU Woods click kit. Very cool stabilization set up . I will start looking at my WW differently now.

I'm very impressed with your setup Curtis. Save one for me.  :biggrin::wink: 

Here are the pics of the burled "Powder"

Comments welcome.....


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## Timebandit

Beautiful Lupe.That is a beautiful piece of wood.I rounded one of the blanks he stabilized for me the other day and is turned suprisingly well. Havent made it a pen yet, but turned well. 

Hope those that i gave you turn out well..Maybe you could send me one of them after you cast them.

Great looking pen


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## mrburls

Good looking pen Lupe. 

I to have tried some of Curtis's stabilized Spanish Oak Burl with his new system for stabilizing wood blanks and found it seems to work pretty well. 
I use alot of stabilized burled blanks and his turned just as well specially in the spalted area's of the blank. 

Keith "mrburls"


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## Pen_Turner_297

That is a really nice looking pen and a beautiful piece of wood.Great job


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## thewishman

That is one gorgeous piece of wood! Nice pen and thanks for the review.


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## David Keller

That's a great looking pen, Lupe!  I'm very interested in the stabilizing setup that Curtis has made available, so it's nice to see the finished product turn out so well...  Of course, your pen making skills are helpful as well.


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## el_d

Thanks for the comments folk.


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## alphageek

Lupe,

Awesome pen..  What kind of finish did you put on it?

Dean


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## el_d

Thanks Dean, 

It has a CA Finish. 2 thin 3med.


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## wolftat

Now that is how a wood stabilizer should work. Good job.


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## PaulDoug

Looks really nice.  I like the stabilized stuff and really want to give a try with one of Curtis' stabilizers, the only thing holding me back is... money,  lack there of.  The unit he sales if very reasonable, but a vacuum pump is what really holds me back.  I want a good pump so I can have vacuum chuck also.


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## makaiolani

Man that's some pretty wood.  I like it too much!  Nice pen.


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## PenMan1

Nicely done, Lupe....Curtis didn't do bad either.


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