First batch of Slimlines

[keenidiot]

It took a little bit until I got where I was happy with how they looked.
Most of the wood came from a pack that wasn't labeled.
One of the pens, the light tan one, is made from Olive wood imported from Bethlehem.
The light one with burning was hard pine from an old bar stool.
I like the look of the pen on the right side, but I royally screwed it up. Got impatient and didn't let the glue set, took it to a sander and took off to much. And cracked the strip of pine at the writing end. Keeping it as a reminder to be patient.

 

[Skie_M]

Well ... let's go from left to right.

PSI's unlabeled batches of wood are generally picked from a known selection, so the reddish one on the left is very likely Padouk. The pine next to it is known by you, the one next to the pine is Zebrawood, and then the Bethlehem Olivewood which is very distinctive. On the right side are Purpleheart, and then the Segmented pen that contains most of the other woods shown together, including a bit of walnut, but no Zebrawood?

 

[keenidiot]

The bit there by the spacer is the zebra wood, actually.
Only had one piece of it, I only had two blanks and the first one I messed up completely.
Thank you very much for the identification. I really like the Padouk and purpleheart. It actually was labeled, or supposed to be. But their printer was apparently on the fritz. All it said was "Hick," and while that's a good description for me, it didn't help much. Especialyrics since there was no hickory that I could see.

 

[Skie_M]

Next go round, I would try for a more even heat exposure on the purpleheart ...

The way I do mine, I do sanding on bare wood all the way up to 400 or 600 grit (whichever I have handy), and then torch the blank to a uniform dark purple color ...

I then grab some 1000 grit sandpaper and sand it back to a slightly lighter purple, almost amethyst.

I then clean the blank up with rubbing alcohol (or use acetone ... my rubbing alcohol is the 93% stuff), and complete my finishing by applying Minwax Stain'n'Seal followed immediately with the first coat of CA. The boiled linseed oil in the Minwax helps the CA to go on nice and smooth.

After that is your typical acrylic finishing steps of wet-sanding up to 12000 grit micromesh and then Plast-X or your choice of plastic polish, with a coat of Turtle Wax Hard Surface to protect the shine from things like fingerprints.


The application of the Minwax and CA will make the purpleheart get VERY dark again. You'll need bright light (like direct sunlight) to make the grain and color pop, but it's well worth the surprise!