Textured, cast pewter collar

During my demonstration at the Symposium in Tampa I showed a couple variations of my cast and threaded pewter collars for a hollow form.  One that seemed to generate a lot of interest is shown in the image below.  I thought I would share the details on how I make this collar.  It is a very simple technique and allows you to cast the texture directly so that the topside of the collar does not need to be turned.  The technique gives you a very organic texture and the collar, because it is not perfectly round, has a natural edge look to it.

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The first step is to create the wooden mold.  I made this one on the lathe using dry maple and simply drilled a 3/8″ deep hole with a 2 1/4″ Forstner bit.  Then you will need to raid the kitchen for some aluminum foil.

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Tear off a piece of the aluminum foil and fold it double.  Then crunch it up so it is all wrinkled.  Carefully open it up and line the mold with it, trying not to smooth out all the wrinkles.  You don’t need to get it to form fit the mold, all you are trying to achieve is a general dished shape.

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Pour the molten pewter directly onto the aluminum foil,  wait for it to cool and then …

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… pop the textured collar out from the aluminum foil.  At this point you can mount it on the lathe in a chuck and  drill and tap the threads.  Then sand the top surface of the collar with some steel wool before applying a patina and then sanding again with steel wool.IMG_0527

The image below shows a detail shot of a similar collar in a suspended hollow form.

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Dyeing for Color

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A couple of months ago a demonstration at my woodturning club prompted me to start experimenting with dyes.   Dyeing and coloring is one of those subjects that can be pretty intimidating.  There are so many colors out there where do you start?   Well, my first step was to buy myself a color wheel.  I also spent some time researching what type of dyes to start with and eventually settle on TransTint Dyes.  The next step was to decide which colors to buy.   After looking at the number of colors available and the cost of the dyes, I decided that I would just buy the primary colors and black.  I figured that with those colors I could mix any other color that I might want.

With that decision behind me I placed my order for a bottle of red, blue, green and black dyes.  While waiting for the package to arrive I took a trip to Harbor Freight and got some 8oz squeeze bottles.  I also went to Walgreens and got a small syringe for accurately measuring the dyes.  If ever you want to feel like a crack addict, going to the drug store and asking for a small syringe will do that for you.  Although they very kindly didn’t charge me for it, the kid at the pharmacy looked me over twice and also asked to see my drivers licensee before giving me the syringe!

The package of dyes arrived and, feeling like a mad chemist, I opened it up ready to start mixing.  Well, who knew that green is not a primary color!!!  I guess if I’d taken the time to really look at the color wheel I brought I might have know.  Apparently the laws of physics/chemistry weren’t going to be changed just because I had brought the wrong color dye, so a trip to my local Woodcraft and I had a bottle of yellow dye to add to my collection.  (“My local Woodcraft” is a relative term here involving a three hour return trip).

My plan was to mix up a “master” bottle of the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue, and then use those to mix up “master” bottles of the secondary colors, orange, green and violet.   From these six colors, along with the black, I figured I could mix up any other color I wanted on a “as needed” basis.

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TranTint dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol.  They can also be added to common finishes including shellac, water based lacquer and polyurethane and most oil based finishes.  I chose to mix the dye with a 50/50 solution of denatured alcohol and lacquer thinners.  This would have the advantage of not raising the grain of the workpiece.  The one disadvantage of doing this is that the solution dries very quickly after application.  As you only get an idea of what the final color will look like when the dye is first applied and wet this does not allow for much time to see if the color is to your liking.

The dyes need to mixed in the following proportion, 1 oz of dye to 1 quart of water or alcohol.  If you’re not interested in doing the math, this came to 7.5 ml of dye to be added to my 8 oz solution of alcohol and lacquer thinners.

Update on ebonizing wood

This is an update to my post on Ebonizing Wood from a couple days ago.  In that post I mentioned I was having trouble getting a shine on the aluminum without knocking the ebonzing off.  I found the solution.  Patience.  I was not giving the ebonzing solution time to dry.

I made another pen and demonstrated the ebonizing to my pen turning club.  I could not get to the pen for a couple of days after the meeting.  When I did, I just sanded it lightly with some non-abrasive steel wool.  The aluminum shone nicely and I still kept the deep color of the ebonizing.

Ebonized maple with aluminum inlay
Ebonized maple with aluminum inlay

Click to enlarge

Ebonizing

Ebonized Maple Pen
Ebonized Maple Pen

Click to enlarge

In the June 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking there was an article by Brian Boggs that really caught my attention.  The article was on ebonizing wood.  As I read the article I imagined a pen made from ebonized maple inlaid with aluminum.  Why not just use ebony?  Well, a couple of reasons.  Firstly, though not a huge factor when dealing with pen blanks, maple is a lot cheaper.  Secondly, maple is a lot easier to work with.  Finally, ebony has a tendency to crack and split.

I laminated a maple pen blank with some aluminum, turned it and then followed the steps outlined by Brian on ebonizing.   The picture above shows the results.  Read on to see what is involved and my thoughts.

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