jskeen
Member
These are the first two of a 3 piece custom set of full size emperor fountain pens I was commissioned to make a while back. The buyer specified the kit, and the materials as real ivory for the cap and custom finial, and ebony for the body. I originally had enough warthog tusks on hand for 3 pens if I didn't mess up.
Anybody wanna guess why there's only two of them finished? Not easy to drill that big a hole through a curved tooth. The third one I just finished drilling out of a third tusk that I ordered and had rush delivered. I was sweating bullets, cause about halfway down the hole, I backed the drill out and looked, and saw light shining through the side. Had to stop, unchuck it, turn it around turn the outside of the other end to fit in the collet, and drill from that end to meet in the middle. I'm guessing that i've got about 1/32 if that, of material begtween the bottom of that groove and the inside of the bore. Ivory ain't exactly transparent, but I'm painting the tube white anyway!
Anyway, after that the ebony body and assembly seemed pretty tame. Put in the SF nibs and tuned them up, and the first two are ready to roll.
I'm not going to mention the fact that after all that work getting that ivory nice and smooth, I had to take it to the trophy shop and have 3 lines of script lasered into each one. Kinda killed the buzz for me, but the paypal deposit helped kill the pain.
Anyway, sorry for the crummy cell phone photo, I don't have a light box set up anymore.
Let me know what you think.
James
Still turnin, ocassionally!
Anybody wanna guess why there's only two of them finished? Not easy to drill that big a hole through a curved tooth. The third one I just finished drilling out of a third tusk that I ordered and had rush delivered. I was sweating bullets, cause about halfway down the hole, I backed the drill out and looked, and saw light shining through the side. Had to stop, unchuck it, turn it around turn the outside of the other end to fit in the collet, and drill from that end to meet in the middle. I'm guessing that i've got about 1/32 if that, of material begtween the bottom of that groove and the inside of the bore. Ivory ain't exactly transparent, but I'm painting the tube white anyway!
Anyway, after that the ebony body and assembly seemed pretty tame. Put in the SF nibs and tuned them up, and the first two are ready to roll.
I'm not going to mention the fact that after all that work getting that ivory nice and smooth, I had to take it to the trophy shop and have 3 lines of script lasered into each one. Kinda killed the buzz for me, but the paypal deposit helped kill the pain.
Anyway, sorry for the crummy cell phone photo, I don't have a light box set up anymore.
Let me know what you think.
James
Still turnin, ocassionally!
