I finally got one of these done!

[spiritwoodturner]

Have you ever worked on a pen project where you felt like you were holding your breath from the moment you cut the blank in half until the last part was pressed? Wow, I sure did on this one. I wrecked a few by sanding through the Alabaster faster than the surrounding PR. I should have known better, and tried as light a touch as possible, but this stuff is 1 hardness scale harder than talc, and man, it's easy to go through it.

I started with large chunks of Utah Raspberry Alabaster that I got from stonesculpturessupplies.com . I whacked them with a 2 lb. hand sledge until small enough to fit in my mold. Then mixed some violet PR with Pearl X in it. Drilled like a dream, epoxied fine, cut OK (if you don't mind powdered stone all over the place-good thanks for good dust collection) and then the trick that Richard at Randbcrafts gave me was to CA the whole thing in stages to provide a consistent sanding surface. It worked perfect, thank you Richard!!!

Now, I think I'm going to drill into whoever buys it that it's a desk pen ONLY, now and forever more! If this dude hits the floor a dust pan will be needed to get it all back. It has to be the most fragile pen I'll ever make, but it sure turned out pretty. Wish I would have put it on a Statesman, but hey, I had a bunch of Retro Jr's around, so there it is.

Comments and Critiques welcome!!!

Dale

 

[thewishman]

Looks good, Dale. That sounds like a gut-clenching project, but it turned out great.

 

[tim self]

That is one nice looking pen. Talk about pucker factor.

 

[papaturner]

WOW! That`s awesome.

 

[punkinn]

Would alabaster hold together well enough to do a solid pen from it? It carves so beautifully. If it could be drilled through successfully then the blanks could be infused with a hardener of sorts via a vacuum press... hmmm... must ask my rock/mineral/lapidary peeps.

 

[randbcrafts]

Very nice work Dale. That turned out beautifully!

 

[spiritwoodturner]

Thanks so much, Richard!!! Coming from you, that means a ton. YOU know these things don't turn themselves...darn near turned me crazy, but I am one stubborn SOB. Just in case no one noticed.

Nancy, no knowledge of that, Richard would be better to comment on that. I would think if you wanted solid, his blanks would be better, even though a reproduction (I think). I would think a solid Alabaster pen would be more brittle than what I ended up with-at least mine has PR throughout. 1 drop and it is absolutely toast. Don't know of a hardener that could change that, but if you come up with something please share! It would look great!

Thanks guys and gals,
Dale