Some donations to the Illinois Taxidermists

[JohnU]

I haven't had much time to make pens lately with home remodeling, making feather blanks and that other nasty thing... work. I had a couple promised sets to finish, one being to my dad for donation pens for his up coming Illinois Taxidermist Conference. This is what I came up with.

The first is Axis Deer Antler on a Jr. Gent. I've seen a few of Roy's axis pen on here and love the look, so I decided to give it a try. Its much creamier colored than the whitetailed antler I use.

The second is a Gent pheasant feather pen. I ordered the box too late for this post but it will be like the other maple box pictured, only with a window and a flying pheasant. This is the first Gent Ive ever made and all I have to say is... Wow this thing is big!

The last couple are camo euros. After seeing Les's camo euro featured on the home page last month I knew what I needed to do. Thanks for the help Les! The picture was taken at night with a lamp so its not so good.

All of the engraving was done by Ken at Kallenshaan Woods. Thanks for the beautiful work Ken!

Of course he will have several feather sierras, but we all know what those look like. lol
Thanks for all your comments. John

 

[PaulDoug]

Holy Cow, those are nice, John. I'm in awe of feather pens. Do you make your feather blank?

 

[jskeen]

Absolutely love the Gent! Fantastic match between the background color and the metal, and contrast from the feathers! The larger kit really showcases the blank much better than any single tube kit.

Caution! opinion to follow, YMMV. I would Think that you would be more likely to get top dollar on a FS Gent like that as a FP rather than a RB. Or, better yet, a convertible, with parts for both. But what say the peanut gallery? Those of you that sell the full size Gent, which moves better, the Rollerball, or Fountain pen?

Fantastic work in either case though. I just wonder, would it be possible to lay up both tubes with the feathers running continuously, so that you could match the pattern top to bottom?

 

[JohnU]

Do you make your feather blank?

Thanks Paul, yes I make them myself, which is probably why I dont get as many pens made these days. lol

Fantastic work in either case though. I just wonder, would it be possible to lay up both tubes with the feathers running continuously, so that you could match the pattern top to bottom?

Thanks Jskeen, yea I think this is one of the first feather gents I made and kept it for myself. Now that I have a little more practice making them, I would put all the feathers in the same direction. I only turned this one around so I had a similar pattern on top and bottom with the gold and black dot feathers. Its flawed, which is probably another reason I kept it. lol I think your right about the FP. I dont do shows yet and mostly donate my pens at this time but in the future I will probably us the Statesman FP kits for the big stuff.

 

[rsmith]

Wow, I don't say this too often, but I really like the way you put your feathers together. It looks like you used wood to back them? I think it looks great with the ends the way they are, but thats only my opinion. Great job

 

[retireddeepsea]

JohnU,
You have done some beautiful work.
I've seen feather pens before, but I don't know how it's done. Do you know of a tutorial? Can you share the procedure? I have an idea how it's done, but don't have the process complete in my mind. Would love to experiment with this idea.

 

[scotian12]

John...as usual, your feather pens are stunning. Beautiful craftmanship! Darrell Eisner

 

[johncrane]

John excellent work and pens! you get my 5000 post and vote it wasn't an easy choice.:wink::wink::biggrin: