Results of my Father's Day Turning Session

[nilsatcraft]

I haven't had time to do much turning lately so my son and I went out to the shop yesterday and turned a couple of Jr. Gent pens. OK- so I turned the pens and he built shapes out of pen blanks, but you get the picture (he's 3). He picked out the first blank- Orange celluloid (sanded to 12,000, no finish) and I picked the second one (non-stabilized Box Elder Burl). The Box Elder was very dry and white but had great figure to it so I sanded to 400, dyed it black, cut it back with 400 again, dyed it blue, sanded through 12,000 then dyed it blue again. Finished with Master's Magic Spray Lacquer, of course No time for segmented work on these ones. Comments are welcome.

You can see a cut of the original blank on top of the spindle- pretty white stuff, great for dyes.

 

[Jim15]

Nice couple of pens Nils. Really like the first one.

 

[Penmonkey]

Great looking pens!

 

[jssmith3]

Beautiful pens Nils! I have some dyes but have not tried them yet, been to busy painting and inlaying but I think I will try dying them for a change.
Janet

 

[JimGo]

Wow, I like the dye job! Neat idea!

 

[Jerryconn]

Very nice, I like the first one in particular.

 

[arioux]

Hi,

Wow, great work. Any chances you eleborate a bit on your dying techniques? I have a good bunch of great figured white box elder burl so i might give it a try.

Alfred

 

[thewishman]

Love the Boxelder, the color looks great! What dyes did you use?

 

[ed4copies]

Is there drying time between dye coats, Nils? Or do you sand to generate heat to dry?

Nice results, no matter the technique-just wondering.

 

[nilsatcraft]

Thanks for the comments. I was curious to see which pen people would like more. As for the dyed blank, I used Chestnut Spirit Stain, which I picked up from our Clearance Sale this past Wednesday. I used Black and Royal Blue. After stabilizing the blank with some superglue I used a skew to get it down to size and then sanded with with 320 and 400 grit paper. I applied black dye and then sanded at 400 until about half of the black was gone. It had a really cool pattern at that point but looked really grey. Then I dyed it blue (I just put some dye on a cloth and rub it onto the blank with the lathe off) and sanded from 600 to 12,000 Micro Mesh. From there, I dyed it one last time, using the dye that was still on the cloth. That last dye really helped. I sprayed it with lacquer and then (for the first time) attempted to sand the lacquer after it had set. It seemed to help a little but I think I'll buff it to smooth it all the way out.

 

[Johnathan]

Both look great. I really like the look of the DBE with that kit. purple and rhodium just go great together.

 

[Dario]

Very nice pens Nils. I am partial to teh double dyed Box Elder burl though []. What can I say...I am a wood guy [].

 

[ken69912001]

Man I really like that double dyed BEB. So much so I just ordered sme of those colors. I was very satisfied with the purple I got.

 

[challagan]

They're both nice I love the dyed box elder! That is just cool!

Corey

 

[Glenn McCullough]

Nils,
very good looking pens. There is no contest when a nice wood is in the competition, though the resin pen is a close second! Thanks for the information on the dying tecnique!
Glenn