Corn Cob Lessons
Tom Mullane, Hagerstown, MD
>Was putting away some stuff in the old chicken coop at my FIL's farm yesterday.. and found the motherload of dry corn cobs...
There has not been a chicken in this coop in over 35 yrs... so these cobs are at least that old... very very dry and hard... perfect pen material...
Now I have never turned a cob pen before and read that you need to stabilize them with CA... so I thought OK... I will pour some CA on them before I cut and drill them.. that should prevent tear out and wandering drill bits.... then I decided since they were hard now.. I would try to turn it round before drilling it....
Have you ever tried to turn marble on your lathe... that is what it felt like.... I managed to get the rough stuff from the outside to chip (notice I did not say CUT) off using a roughing gouge that I had to sharpen 4 times.. The core is another story all together... rock hard... I doubt I will finish playing with that cob until I get some carbide cutting tools, LOL
SO off to another cob... cut and drilled and turned fine.. got almost to the final size and CA'd it... finish cut with light touch... got a little smaller than I wanted at the nib.. but still feels good..
Final finish CA sanded in at 400 grit.. sand again to 600 grit, EEE polish, then Turner's Magic (3 coats), carnuba wax and then Renaissance Wax..