Roman Harvest FP in Translucent Calico

[jjjaworski]

I was dying to use this translucent calico blank I got from Classic-Nibs. All in all it went pretty okay. I was undecided on what to back paint the blank with and made a poor choice. I probably should have painted the tubes as well.

I used a metallic bronze. The metallic powder or specks in the paint is detrimental in my opinion. It sure sounded like a good idea at the time. Live and learn. It will make a good everyday clunker unless I take it apart and turn something different for it.

The translucent blanks are a bit of a challange for me. I did lightly hand sand the blanks after drilling to remove scoring from drilling. Perhaps a simplier approach next time might work better.

Another speed-bump in my pen-turning adventure I suppose.

 

[booney0717]

very nice!

 

[renowb]

Awesome pen!

 

[SDB777]

Sounds like a bit of work went into this one....came out great from my chair!




And I like the coloring of the reverse painting too!






Scott

 

[bubbamorse]

I was dying to use this translucent calico blank I got from Classic-Nibs. All in all it went pretty okay. I was undecided on what to back paint the blank with and made a poor choice. I probably should have painted the tubes as well.

I used a metallic bronze. The metallic powder or specks in the paint is detrimental in my opinion. It sure sounded like a good idea at the time. Live and learn. It will make a good everyday clunker unless I take it apart and turn something different for it.

The translucent blanks are a bit of a challange for me. I did lightly hand sand the blanks after drilling to remove scoring from drilling. Perhaps a simplier approach next time might work better.

Another speed-bump in my pen-turning adventure I suppose.

I'd have to eye it in person to see what you're referring to...the pictures aren't able to carry that level of refinement (IMHO). As far as I'm concerned that is one fine looking pen!

 

[ghostrider]

The pen looks great in the pictures.

However, I can relate to the coloring woes. I too have experimented with paints, and recently used Metalic Gold to reverse paint a very translucent blank, and the result was less than desirable IMHO. In my case, I think it actually would have looked better had I just used bare tubes.

 

[Fred]

Transparent Blank Cure ... Works VERY Well For ME!

I just finished a Roman Harvest FP and used a somewhat transparent blank.

To avoid the show through of the tubes I simply drill both the top and bottom of the blanks using a drill bit that is one step larger than needed. I then plugged all ends of both tubes with small tapered corks and placed them into the blank openings. I had earlier squared up the ends with the pen mill, I stood the blanks up on the ends of the corks which sealed off the bottom ends of the blanks rather nicely. I them mixed up a small batch of System Three Mirror Coat to which I added five drops of Amber Transtint. I dropped the tinted mixture around the corks in the top until the blank was full. The corks worked very well to prevent the resin from getting into the inside of the tubes.

When the mixture was totally cured I cut off the corks and dug out what was left inside the tubes. I have very bright spot lights on my lathe and as I was turning the blanks I could not see one speck of the brass tubes. This may be my new method of attacking the problem of tube shine through. The System Three can be easily tinted to any color under the sun.

All in all I believe I used 20-25 drops of resin mix to complely fill the void between the tubes and the blanks. BTW, this System Three sticks to every nook and cranny and doersn't release with any ease so it seems the tubes are colored and secured at the same time. The belt sander will remove the corks and the mill will re-dress the ends of the tubes.

Try it and see what you think.

 

[johncrane]

Excellent love the color

 

[mrcook4570]

Great looking pen!