# Finishing Worthless Wood Blanks



## Bob Kardell (Jan 24, 2016)

I tried my first mixed material blank - a worthless maple wood with blue acrylic.  The maple looked great while sanding, but because it was a mixed material blank I decided to finish like acrylic.  My thinking was the acrylic wouldn't look good if I sanded only to a 400 grit the way I normally do with wood.  The final sanding at 2000 though turned the maple grey.  I had used some wet sanding but thought the light maple would return when it dried - it didn't and the pen looks nice but the maple is a grey instead of the light color it should be.  

Does anyone have suggestions as to how to finish a mixed material blank to keep the wood looking good?

Any suggestions to keep maple from greying or darkening during the final finish?

Thanks,

Bob


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## MesquiteMan (Jan 24, 2016)

Don't ever wet sand Worthless Wood.  Treat it just like you would any solid wood blank.


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## jsolie (Jan 24, 2016)

When I've turned pens out of blanks like that, I usually give it a CA finish.  The CA fills the scratches in the acrylic or alumilite or whatever the material is.  Finish it like you would a wooden blank with CA.  I don't think I'd wet sand, as sometimes I'll manage to sand through the CA and have to take another run at the finish.


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## Don Rabchenuk (Jan 25, 2016)

This pen was first dry sanded with mm to 12000 then finished with ca. and mm again to 12000. I feel the acrylic gets more depth when doing the mm before applying the ca then polishing again.


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## Bob Kardell (Jan 26, 2016)

Thanks for the suggestions - I am going to give it another go without the wetsanding!


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## farmer (Jan 28, 2016)

*Maple*



Bob Kardell said:


> I tried my first mixed material blank - a worthless maple wood with blue acrylic.  The maple looked great while sanding, but because it was a mixed material blank I decided to finish like acrylic.  My thinking was the acrylic wouldn't look good if I sanded only to a 400 grit the way I normally do with wood.  The final sanding at 2000 though turned the maple grey.  I had used some wet sanding but thought the light maple would return when it dried - it didn't and the pen looks nice but the maple is a grey instead of the light color it should be.
> 
> Does anyone have suggestions as to how to finish a mixed material blank to keep the wood looking good?
> 
> ...



Did you sand across the grain ?
Did you have you lathe running while you were sanding ?

Did you have your 5 horse air compressor shooting air across where you were sanding so the grey saw dust doesn't contaminate the wood and make it turn gray or dirty.

Just a couple of swipes with new clean dry sand paper that hasn't ever sanded on anything before.

Blow what ever amount of clean dry oil free compressed air you need so the grey saw dust doesn't get in the open pours of the wood grain and makes it look like you threw it in a mud puddle..


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## BigNick73 (Jan 28, 2016)

You can probably sand that blank some and get the wood color back. 

I do a lot of wood cast blanks, and I dry sand all the way through the micromesh to 12K. This is overkill for the wood but gets the acrylic as closed to polished as possible without using liquids. 

Then finish with CA, and wet sand with the micro mesh. The CA will hide most micro scratch/swirl marks in the acrylic but you want it as smooth as possible because deeper scratches that you think would fill will show, black and darker acrylics are the worst.


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## TonyL (Jan 29, 2016)

I use a CA finish.
But before that blow-out any residual sanding powder (forced air), and wipe it a few times with DNA on a paper towel, then blow-out again until I can't see any sanding powder. I don't wet sand anything, but I am in the minority.


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## endacoz (Feb 8, 2016)

Can we see a photo of your blank?



Bob Kardell said:


> I tried my first mixed material blank - a worthless maple wood with blue acrylic.  The maple looked great while sanding, but because it was a mixed material blank I decided to finish like acrylic.  My thinking was the acrylic wouldn't look good if I sanded only to a 400 grit the way I normally do with wood.  The final sanding at 2000 though turned the maple grey.  I had used some wet sanding but thought the light maple would return when it dried - it didn't and the pen looks nice but the maple is a grey instead of the light color it should be.
> 
> Does anyone have suggestions as to how to finish a mixed material blank to keep the wood looking good?
> 
> ...


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## Bob Kardell (Feb 8, 2016)

I am attaching a photo.  

To answer some of the questions - yes I sand with the grain between grits; I use DNA to clean off the blanks before finishing; I do sand on the lathe.

I purchased another blank and tried it... the second one came out much better without the wet sanding.

Thanks again for the suggestions!


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