Marching Star

[workinforwood]

This is for my Pith partner, Turbowagon. I sweated it out this afternoon and launched it off to him with the mail man. It's dang hot out there, and I have no A/C in the shop. I actually broke down and went into the city to buy one, but they are all sold out everywhere, so I have to suffer for being a cheap skate again.

Anyhow...it's a cool pen in my opinion. Scrolled star on the march through red/white/blue...or at least that is how I see the pen as being. Great colors and chatoyance in that blank. Modified single barrel cigar, with aluminum nib and aluminum finial twist activator. Pen body seems to be just a hair out of round near the nib, although you can't see it and the user is unlikely to notice because it is a kitless pen with no hard edges, but I see it. It must be that time again to beat the jet mini back into alignment with my sledgehammer again. :biggrin:

 

[wood-of-1kind]

Jeff, the only thing "hotter" than you is that fine PITH creation of yours. That Turbowagon is one lucky guy.

 

[turbowagon]

Whoah, SWEET!

That looks like 100 times better than the original blank, which looked awesome as well! Great job on fitting in with the theme without being boring.

Can't wait to get it!

- Joe

 

[renowb]

WOW! Nice job!

 

[mrcook4570]

Stunning pen!

 

[ToddMR]

Very nice pen and great job on everything!

 

[maxman400]

Jeff that looks cool.

 

[Tanner]

That's cool! I'm still trying to wrap my brain around "Modified single barrel cigar, with aluminum nib and aluminum finial twist activator." You made your own nib and finial twist activator? You twist the finial and the pen comes out? I can't imagine the ingenuity that took. I may need to see a tutorial on this.

 

[PR_Princess]

Very cool Jeff! Love the color combo! :tongue::biggrin:

 

[workinforwood]

That's cool! I'm still trying to wrap my brain around "Modified single barrel cigar, with aluminum nib and aluminum finial twist activator." You made your own nib and finial twist activator? You twist the finial and the pen comes out? I can't imagine the ingenuity that took. I may need to see a tutorial on this.

It's actually something I learned from Butch a year or more ago. I just took it my own way with my own style of doing it and he went his way with his own style..the Calisto and Telisto pens he has are basically the same as this. Maybe some day I'll find some time I could do a quick tutorial...it's not complicated at all and although I use my metal lathe to do it, just having a collet chuck and one of ken's woodchuck tools and a wood lathe will work just fine for a pen similar to this.

I had some problems spinning the nib the last couple times. When I first started, I was drilling a piece of aluminum rod and then I'd place it between centers and spin it to size and shape. That works fine..but it is hard on the tip, aluminum being soft, it takes a beating and can go out of round from the pressure on the tip. The most logical answer was to simply chuck the nib coupler from a cigar pen into a collet. Screw the nib on to the coupler and spin away...it's perfect, and produces a perfectly round undamaged nib. But...this is where the problem comes..the tool puts pressure on the nib causing it to screw on to the coupler extra tight and after the nib is shaped and polished it's impossible to get it off without damaging it. After about 4 times battling this..I finally realized the duh moment of it all. Simply un chuck the nib and coupler. Wrap the nib with a piece of masking tape. Insert the nib end into a collet and now you can just grab the coupler piece with a pair of plyers and break the bond. The collet won't mar the nib at all with a little masking tape on it.