5 successes? out of 8 attempts...

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betwisted

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Joined
Jan 8, 2013
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78
Location
Las Vegas
With president's day I ended up having a 3 day weekend. I thought I'd get to crackin on this 8 custom pen request my wife brought home from work, plus another 4 pens I'd had prepped since last Wednesday. Well, out of the 12 possible pens, I could only find hardware for 8 of them (in my stash, and from a local supplier). I figured, 8...8's not bad...that'll be a great weekend, relaxing...productive...well, long story short, attached are 5 completed pens. Of the 3 not seen, this Gabon Ebony is killin me on a CA finish that I've already done twice:at-wits-end:. The other two are actually a matching pen/pencil slimline set with a home cast purple/white acrylic (translucent/mica powders). :confused: I think I need to figure out reverse painting...anyway..on to what you see here. :)

The pen laying in the front row is a slimline in platinum hardware with a custom cast purple/green/white acrylic. The problem for me with these slimlines is that even if the tube doesn't show through, I have to remove so much material (The customer is a woman and wanted a thin pen) to get the form factor right for her that it ruins the cool luminescence the pearlex powders lend to the acrylic when the density of the mica is right. She also requested the colors for the pen.

In the back row from left to right are 2 designer twists, a cuban, and a diva. As I'm still new to this hobby I'm spending a lot of time (and $$) experimenting with the different pens to see which I like to make best.

The green/white designer is in 24kt gold. This blank was a cast I did as an experiment about a month ago. I don't care much for the opaqueness of the pen as it ruins the depth you get with a Clear based acrylic, but I think the overall pen looks okay anyway.

The other designer is a purple/blue/white in satin hardware. I like this pen and will probably carry it for a few days just to see how I like the design in my pocket and hand.

The Cuban uses a copper hardware and a seashell crush blank I got with blank variety purchase I'd made a couple weeks back. I really like the way this pen turned out. you get some tube effect showing through the white pearl acrylic, but I was hoping for that anyway as I wanted the white to appear "aged".

The diva uses a custom cast silmar 41 with super copper and true blue powders. I went heavy on the powders so you get a lot of reflectivity and color in the material. I'm a huge fan of those two colors together and the resultant barrel is beautiful once it's all buffed out.

Wow...that was a lot of typing. Thanks for readin this far (even if you skimmed most of it :rolleyes:) and checkin out my pens.

C & C welcome and appreciated,
Joe
 

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firewhatfire

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Joined
Mar 7, 2011
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3,813
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Columbiana, Alabama
Are you cleaning the ebony with acetone before doing CA. If not give that a try. Some use denatured alcohol but I find the acetone works for me better.

Reverse painting is a simple solution, start with back and white paint and q tips if you don't have small brushes. Add other color paints as you can. I use ceramacoat paint from Hobby Lobby as it works for me.

Experiment with everything you hear about till you find what works for your style.

Phil
 

SDB777

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Joined
Feb 6, 2010
Messages
6,620
Location
Cabot, Arkansas USA
Reverse painting is a pian, but it works wonders....well most of the time. When gluing your tubes in, I would strongly recommend not using CA, it seems to break the dried paint loose and leave brass tube showing again or muddy-ing up the inside of the blank that was painted and you can once again see the tube.


The fantasic five look really nicely done!





Scott (too may ways to do things wrongly) B
 

betwisted

Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2013
Messages
78
Location
Las Vegas
Thanks for the comments and suggestions :)

I did use acetone to wipe the wood really well prior to the CA finish. I think my problem is just patience (and practice). Of course, re-doing a finish 3 times should teach me both of those :bulgy-eyes:. I read about the acetone/DNA wipe on the wood pens from this site (which is fantastic btw). I've been using acetone because I had a can of it sittin in the garage. I might have to try the DNA thing just to see if it works better for me.

ON a quick side note...Thanks to all who contribute to this site, from the creators to the moderators to the members who've helped me get this creative outlet up and running.
 

BSea

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Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
4,628
Location
Little Rock, Arkansas
Don't just wipe with acetone lightly. Let it really soak in. You want to remove as much of the outer oil as possible. And DNA might work, but I've had better luck with acetone.
 
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