As of February 2018, we have what we call our “new process” grass blanks. We start by vacuuming all of our resin after we mix it with the catalyst. We cast the blanks. Then we put them in our pressure pot overnight to help decrease the chance of air pockets. While there may still be some small air bubbles, this dramatically increases the quality of these blanks. The downside, is it slows down production a bit. So we will be only be stocking clear and black grass blanks on our site. All other colors will be custom order only. We will try and keep some on hand to help fill these orders quicker when possible.
Our blanks that have grass in them are one of our original designs. This is made from real grass that we cut ourselves. The window to cut this grass is limited so we stock up as much as we can between the time it turns brown to the time snow flies.
Turning: These blanks must be turned with much more care than our regular blanks. You need to GO SLOW. You also need to have sharp tools. If not, you will end up blowing up the blank, since grass and resin are a different hardness.
Finishing: These blanks, are different than our normal turning blanks. Even with the new process, they still may have small voids/air pockets in them. There may be parts of grass that protrude out as well. These blanks can still be finished, but it takes more time than a typical blank. Any voids should be filled with CA glue (some have used clear epoxy with good results). This isn’t hard to do, but takes some time to master. CA comes in different thicknesses and each has a use when doing grass blanks. Activator really helps out too.
If you don’t want to do a CA finish, don’t have the time to do it, etc….please don’t buy our grass blanks. These are not a good blank for someone trying to run a large volume of production calls or for beginners that haven’t spent a considerable amount of time behind the lathe.
Some blanks may be worse/better than others. This is not a quality control issue. We have done everything possible to minimize air intrusion, but with these types of blanks, it is the nature of the beast.