Hello,
Found your web site while searching for banksia pod hair sticks. Wanted to know if the person that works with the pods is able to or wants to make a couple for me. I had seen a pix of one and fell in love but unable to find anyone that can make it.I'm interested in having it inlayed with Chrysacola nuggets with maybe some lapis dust and the bottom portion made with ebony. I do have a pix so if your up for a go at it send me an email.
Thank you, Martina
My first reaction was, "What in the heck is a Hair Stick?" I sent a note back requesting clarification, which I got. After doing a bit of research on the subject, I was amazed to find that there are web pages devoted to long haired women and how they maintain same.
Enter the Hair Stick:
This apparently is what Martina was after and I thought that this could not possibly be that hard to recreate (famous last words).
I decided to do a test run with materials on hand - Banksia Pod, Turquoise and Myrtlewood.
I used two Myrtlewood pen blanks and one Banksia Pod pen blank cut in half to create two hair stick blanks.
They are glued together using Elmer's heavy duty wood glue.
I mounted the blank on the lathe and got ready to turn.
A couple minutes later, an end broke off the hair stick blank.
No problem, that is what CA glue is made for. As an aside, I now use Stick Fast instead of the glue provided by Wood Craft.
The CA glue bottles are made from a material which resists tip and bottle clogging. The tips have not clogged yet.
The glue is from Woodturningz.com.
Several minutes later...... #!(%(!
What is the #1 rule when working with Banksia Pods? If in doubt, use more CA glue.
In this case, there is no reinforcement of the banksia pod holes. We need to add some inlay.
That ought to toughen it up some.....
I also switched to some pin jaws. Might help reduce pressure on the hair stick blank.
...................... This is not going as expected.............. but that's what you make spares for.
This time around the pin jaws are holding the banksia pod hair stick top, which is going to probably be the heaviest part of the
hair stick. Always place the heaviest part of the turning closest the the head stock. I forgot about that.
This is what makes Banksia pods so challenging to work with. I turn this any further and I will blow out the hair stick top if I don't add some inlay to reinforce the hair stick blank.
That should help a little. The inlay is turquoise.
I also need to add a band of turquoise to cover the split between banksia pod and myrtlewood.
This also adds stability to the hair stick.
I used a sanding block to knock down the inlay and then switched to drill mounted pads and began finishing the hair stick.
Most people given their druthers, prefer darker woods and since Myrtlewood is light, why not use little know secret burning technique
to finish this off.........
I added a coat of CA glue to the whole hair stick in order to keep the piece stable.
CA glue is known to produce fumes on occasion. Don't breathe too deeply.
Ok, I can make one of these. All I need to do is polish this up with a buffing wheel and it is good to go.
However, I am keeping this one. Too much aggravation was involved with this that I didn't mention here.
I think I should install feathers and make a dart out of it, or put a steel tip on it for use in a blow gun.
Hair Stick construction involving lathe turning and dissimilar woods needs to be modified a bit.
The hair stick blank, particularly the banksia pod end, needs to be strengthened before doing any turning.
