SLIMLINE The hardest pen I have turned..

[PaulDoug]

Well, I've been wanting to try a cork pen. This is from wine corks. It was turn and soak with CA, turn and CA, turn and CA... many hours. Maybe it would be easier if it was "stabilized" in a vacuum pot. I don't know. Did the best I could.

OK, Skye, bring it on....:beat-up:

 

[Skye]

That thing sucks sucks sucks!

No, but really that's pretty cool. I like the way you cleaned the ends of the blanks with hardwood, good idea. How hard is it? If you bite on it (like everyone does by accident) are you going to leave tooth impressions in it?

I think they would sell well at wine shops.

 

[gad5264]

That is a great idea for turning stock

 

[broitblat]

I think the pen looks great.

I had thought about this but I figured there would be too much tear out from turning. At the very least, I'm sure you need sharp tools.

Also, I don't think stabilizing would work because I wouldn't expect the cork to absorb any of the resin, etc.

-Barry

 

[PaulDoug]

The pen is hard because it is encased in CA. I don't think it would work leaving the cork soft and unfinished, dirty hands would discolor it pretty quick. On one end I lost a chunk because the blood wood chipped out. I was able to glue it and the attached cork back and it is Not noticable. Sharp skew on the cork and of coarse lots of thin CA.

Unless I could find a faster easier way of making them I don't think they would sell well if you wanted to get paid for your time.

 

[roddesigner]

Paul the pen looks excellent might have been a lot easier to simply sand it rather then turn,one problem with cork is it is not porous simply won't absorb anything the CA is simply sitting on top we have used rod finishes over cork and that holds up very well over time and use

 

[Skye]

Unless I could find a faster easier way of making them I don't think they would sell well if you wanted to get paid for your time.

Only way I could really think of would be to glue it all up, slap it on the lathe and use some HEAVY sandpaper to bring it down to size. Maybe even some kind of rasp file or something.

You could probably also use a very sharp blade, maybe one of these:

with the blade removed (lathe off of course) and slice it longways to an appropriate size, something closer to the final size. To make this easier, you could turn the wood parts for the kit, square them up, drill the corks, glue them all together on the tubes. When you put it all on the mandrel, use the wood parts as a cutting guide. Then, you just need to sand it with heavy a** sandpaper to get it to size.

 

[PaulDoug]

I turned to almost size and than went to coarse sandpaper. Porbably using sandpaper sooner would eliminate the need for so much CA soaking.

 

[workinforwood]

Well worth the effort in my opinion..the pen looks great!

Now I'd like you to test it, remove the ink and see if it floats!

 

[les-smith]

Nice looking pen, great idea. I think there would be a market for that type of pen seeing it's made out of wine corks.

How's the weight? I think it would be light.

 

[igran7]

Very nice Paul. As I said before, it looks like it was definitely worth the effort. I never would have imagined cork as a medium. Great job!

 

[Ligget]

Great work, the idea is fantastic too!

 

[toolcrazy]

Looks just as nice over here.

 

[td]

You have a beautiful pen to show for your time spent working on it and also great experience to holster in your belt!

 

[mobrackett]

Major Job well done!!!

 

[cpwturner]

Challenging? Yes. Creativity. That's what this is all about. Good work!!!

 

[desertyellow]

I appreciate the time investment.
Good looking pen.