Cast My Own Abalone Blanks and Resultong Sierra Pens

[lhowell]

I've been wanting to try some of the abalone blanks I've seen but did not want to pay the $40+ online per blank! Found a company called MudHole Tackle that sells micro flex abalone sheets. I cut the sheets into strips and mounted them on the pen tubes and cast in clear Alumilite.
The first one I did I did not paint the tube black so it shows through on some of the gaps between the strips but the green heart which is my second I painted the tube black and he result was much better. I also kept the green heart strips in sequence and lined up the patterns in the shell as I mounted each strip.
I've bought several other sheets in various colors and a bunch of extra tubes! Pretty excited to have this opportunity without the huge cost of buying them online!

 

[LR9788]

Beautiful pens!

 

[magpens]

Nice going !!!! . How many strips fit around the Sierra tube ? Just curious.

 

[Jim15]

Those look great.

 

[gimpy]

Awesome, the look like they will sell in a heart beat

 

[OZturner]

Stunning Achievement Lee,
Your Persistence has paid Dividends,
Excellent Result, they are Beautiful.
Great Fit, and Finish.
Congratulations,
Brian.

 

[lhowell]

Nice going !!!! . How many strips fit around the Sierra tube ? Just curious.

Roughly about 11. I cut them into 1/8 strips. The last strip is a little smaller than the others but it by much. I'm sure if I needed to be very precise I would determine the circumference and figure out what thickness would give me an even number but the strips get extremely hard to handle less than 1/8".

 

[jttheclockman]

What did you cut the strips with to keep uniform??? Nice work and it does leave a lot of possibilities. Thanks for showing.

 

[Sappheiros]

They look gorgeous! Great job!

 

[lhowell]

What did you cut the strips with to keep uniform??? Nice work and it does leave a lot of possibilities. Thanks for showing.

A very sharp xacto knife and 6" straight edge rule on a self healing cutting mat. Thanks!

 

[LR9788]

Is the diameter too small for a single wrap? They advertise that it is made for wrapping around fishing rods which I know are significantly larger

 

[Rolandranch]

Very nice!! I'm going to be making some abalone pens next week. Hope they turn out as well as yours!

 

[Akula]

Nice job. Mudhole is a good company, I've used them for many years on tackle.

They have several videos on how to mark and cut the abalone sheets so there is no gap. It's used for a lot of things but the main thing is fishing rods.

 

[MDWine]

Very nice indeed... quite exciting!

 

[bpgoldo]

Nothing but "Stunning". What a wonderful example of high craftsmanship and commitment. Blank to finished product. Congrats.

 

[lhowell]

Is the diameter too small for a single wrap? They advertise that it is made for wrapping around fishing rods which I know are significantly larger

On Mudhole's website they have a video where they soak the sheet in boiling water for ten or so minutes and then using a burnishing tool they wrap the sheet around a fishing rod blank.

I've reached out to others on here who have stated they have used a combination boiling vinegar/water to soak the sheet in and still had it crack in some spots around the tube. They also stated that soaking it breaks some of the calcium down and leads to a duller, less vibrant sheen on the abalone.

I probably will try it one of these days but I kind of like the three dimensional aspect that the individual strips provides. As one of my coworkers stated, "It looks like it would have dimensional texture to it but doesnt!"

 

[lhowell]

Nice job. Mudhole is a good company, I've used them for many years on tackle.

They have several videos on how to mark and cut the abalone sheets so there is no gap. It's used for a lot of things but the main thing is fishing rods.

Thanks for the info! I will have to look into more of their videos!