Lotus Fountain

[Bree]

I made a Lotus Fountain pen as a gift for my sweetie. I wanted to make a natural looking pen that complimented the gold rings of the Lotus without overpowering the beauty of the Rhodium and 22Kt Gold pen parts.

I finished it with a single light treatment of 50% tung oil, 50% Mineral spirits and 5 ml of Japan Drier. I let that sit for overnight. That gave just the amount of grain highlight that I wanted. Then I started with a CA/Tung Oil finish. I put on 6 coats of CA each followed by a drop or two of Tung Oil rubbed into the CA as it dried. That toned the gloss down yet left a strong durable finish on the wood.

I polished it up with a Beall triple buffing. I never did a high end pen like this before and I am quite pleased with it. The feel is heavy and wonderful!!

I wish I had better photography as the pen looks better than the PIX. I did take a bunch to show just how lovely the pen kit is.

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[bitshird]

Nice job Bree, you certainly did justice to a beautiful kit, they are heavy, I really like the way you brought the grain up, it looks awesome.

 

[mbroberg]

You did a great job on that pen!:good: Your attention to detail shows. Your photography is fine also.

 

[maxman400]

Great Looking Pen.

 

[hewunch]

You did a great job on that pen!

 

[Bree]

Thx guys. I finally decided to do the CA Russ Fairfield's way. I couldn't find the can of BLO so I used my own concoction. It worked pretty well. I still have to work out the kinks in the way I execute his strategy but I think I got a good finish that will last a long time.

I put the Lotus into a nice Cordovan colored hardwood flip top box and it looks very nice. It will make a good desk pen.

So on to the next challenge!!
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[el_d]

Nice Job Bree, pretty piece of curl....

 

[Jim15]

Outstanding pen, great work.

 

[rjwolfe3]

That is a sweet looking pen.

 

[fernhills]

Nice one, once you start making the larger pens you can`t stop. I found that just straight thin C/A works just right for me.

 

[cnirenberg]

I like it. Wonderful looking pen.

 

[Bree]

Nice one, once you start making the larger pens you can`t stop. I found that just straight thin C/A works just right for me.

I have found that! I have to make 10 slimlines for a friend so she can send them as presents. I dread the thought of losing all that nice wood when they could be getting cigars or something even better and bigger!! LOL!

I bought some Jr Gents and have some more on order as well as a couple of Imperials. So I am definitely moving to the bigger is better crowd. If I were selling them, I would probably want to do the big ones exclusively. But I am not in the business so I don't have to make that call.

I sure did find this pen EZ to do once I got setup properly. Simple instructions... EZ to turn... EZ to assemble. And it wasn't all that hard to finish either. I like these!!
:wink::wink::wink:

 

[Bree]

Nice job Bree, you certainly did justice to a beautiful kit, they are heavy, I really like the way you brought the grain up, it looks awesome.

Ya know it was one thin coat of tung oil. I screwed up a really nice walnut pen by putting too much tung oil on and not letting it dry right. So I made a fast dry solution and use it sparingly and it does its magic.

I wanted to put on more but I thought about what was requested... a "natural" light colored wood. I was going to zap it with some TransTint Yellow which would have golded it out and really brought out the curl. But that idea was rejected by the person who wants the pen. So this is exactly what was ordered... not necessarily my highest and best use of the pen kit.

I have seen some fabulous tinted curly maple here. Brian (USAFVET98) has done some really nice ones that I liked a lot. I still plan to do some of those because I have a ton of super curly maple and a ton of spalted maple... some curly and spalted. The tint ought to bring up all those odd spalting shades.

 

[Ligget]

WOW, that is a beauty, very well done!