# Playing around



## jrich7970 (Sep 20, 2020)

So, after watching Mark Dryer's vid on dying and bleaching, and dying that maple blank (and where IAP members introduced me to the property of chatoyancy), I decided to play a little more.  

I have a lot of walnut laying around (for non-pen purposes).  I have done a few pens, and I think it's kind of boring (although my daughter seems to like it).  So, I turned it smooth, and bleached it.  It came out, as I expected, totally white.  Even more boring.  So, I dyed it.  Came out like this: (not the best picture).

You can see the grain still, which is nice.  I still find it a little boring.  






Going the bleach route (and also from Mark's vid again), I decided to try out some wenge.  Check out these.  Very interesting.  I let this sit in the bleach for about two hours.  

I decided to go the full route and finish it with CA and Meguire's.  As an aside, that "chunk"...do you guys try to fill that in if you use Wenge, or leave it as an interesting artifact of the wood?  And if you do, how do you fix it, just put a whole lot of CA there?

Regardless, this opens up a whole area to "play".  I might try something like taping, or putting something on a blank to keep it from bleaching in spots (if that would work), or with dying.  Who knows.


----------



## Roger Wilco (Sep 20, 2020)

I like both of them!  Sure, the first one's a little boring, but I like the color.  Same thing happened to me with some eucalyptus.  I thought it would have some really nice figure to it and it came out almost exactly like your first pic.  Pretty color, but not very interesting.  On the wenge, just cover the divit with the clip!


----------



## DrD (Sep 20, 2020)

I went to search for the video of Mark Dryer you references and found nothing.  Can you help me locate this video?  Thanks, Dr.D


----------



## jrich7970 (Sep 20, 2020)

DrD said:


> I went to search for the video of Mark Dryer you references and found nothing.  Can you help me locate this video?  Thanks, Dr.D



Sure.


----------



## DrD (Sep 20, 2020)

Thanks


----------



## Penchant 4 (Sep 20, 2020)

Leave the divot.  Gives nice character.


----------



## Alchemist (Sep 20, 2020)

jrich7970 said:


> Sure.



Great video! Interesting enough, the method he uses black then his color is the same method to dye pipes. However, alcohol based coloring is used, mostly fiebing’s dyes. To make it set, you light it on fire until it goes out. I was going to do it a blank to see if the process works. Now, I know!


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app


----------



## Alchemist (Sep 20, 2020)

I’m going try a piece of Bocote! [emoji38]


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app


----------

