Bourbon Stave Rollerball

[jalbert]

I just finished up a kitless rollerball pen as a birthday present for one of my good friends. He is a serious bourbon connoisseur, so I used a blank cut from a Buffalo Trace bourbon barrel, ebonite, and bronze. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I wasn't sure how to deal with the wood, since any kind of finish was going to mask or diminish the bourbon scent. In the end I just went ahead and CA glued it. The blank came with a certificate of authenticity, so at least my friend will know the blank is legitimate I may make him a box for it that is lined with a raw bourbon stave, so I feel that is a good way to at least have some bourbon scent present. Thanks for looking!
-John

 

[FourOaksCrafts]

Great job! Did the CA finish totally mask the Bourbon scent?

 

[Ed McDonnell]

Hi John - Retaining the "natural" scent of the wood with a finish is tough. I can't think of a finish that wouldn't either block or overwhelm the wood. What I might have considered was to do an insert on the cap finial of the raw wood with no finish. I don't know if that would be a big enough piece to preserve the scent.

You could suggest that he dip the cap in bourbon before each use....:biggrin:

Ed

 

[jalbert]

Thanks! The CA glue did completely mask the bourbon. I expected it would, but I would rather the pen look completely finished from an aesthetic point of view. This was why I had the idea of making a complementary box for the pen that had some raw wood from the stave in it.

Ed-
Having an insert made of the raw wood is a good idea. Should have thought of that

 

[76winger]

You could also make an entire box out of the staves.

 

[magpens]

That kitless pen is remarkably nice looking ... you did a great job !!!

 

[jalbert]

Thank you! The wood is a little plain, and not what I would choose for me personally, but I guess the story behind it was more important than what it looked like!

 

[Jack Parker]

Great job, looks really nice!

 

[PapaTim]

Great job on the pen, John.
Sometimes with special fragrant blanks like that I'll turn a shape on the cutoff, leave it raw, add a rare earth magnet and include it. I first did that with a coffee bean blank I did for a coffee scoop (gift for my daughter). She still goes to the fridge to smell that magnet every so often.

 

[jalbert]

Thanks! That's another good idea. I think I have an offcut laying around somewhere and will do just that!

 

[Charlie69]

Man! I absolutely love this pen. The attention to details like the bands and nose cone really make it stand out among the kitless roller balls I've seen (and made). Nice!

 

[jalbert]

Thanks Charlie! I usually make fountain pens, so figuring out how to approach the grip section was probably one of the biggest challenges for me. The nose definitely needed to act as a transition between the grip and the point of the ink refill, which is something I never have to worry about when making fountain pens.