Some recent pens

[desert1pocket]

This pen was in the middle of being finished when my lathe died. I couldn't wait for the new lathe, so I completed the finish and sanding by hand. It is mesquite with a walnut checker pattern.

This one is an attempt at a San Diego Chargers pen for my brother in law. It is blue died maple with osage orange for the lightning bolt. It is also my first purchased pen blank.

This one is osage orange with red mallee and purple heart. I am dissapointed in this one as the pores in the PH that I filled w/ ca, turned white after finishing.

And last is a bias cut mesquite with maple and purple heart. I drilled this one way off center to get the sap wood inclusion at the finial end.

Any and all critiques are welcome, because thats how I know what to improve. Thanks for looking.

 

[kiddo]

Way Cool! You make those woods work so well together!

The mesquite, maple, purple heart at the end is the one I like best with the checkerboard next.

Kiddo

 

[alamocdc]

Them shur ar purty! The top slim looks quite classy.

 

[skiprat]

All very nice, but I actually really like the bottom slimlne best.
I think that that one may have looked even better with a 'wasp' shape, to fill the gap between the wood and the clip, and it may have emphasised the bias cut. Nice work and better finish than I'm getting with wood too!!![]

PS. How did the lathe die? Sounds a bit too close to Christmas to me!!!!![][][]

 

[NavyDiver]

Excellent pens! Great job.

 

[Jim15]

All great, nice work.

 

[johnnycnc]

Good looking pens,nice finish.[]

 

[desert1pocket]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

Originally posted by skiprat
<br />All very nice, but I actually really like the bottom slimlne best.
I think that that one may have looked even better with a 'wasp' shape, to fill the gap between the wood and the clip, and it may have emphasised the bias cut. Nice work and better finish than I'm getting with wood too!!![]

PS. How did the lathe die? Sounds a bit too close to Christmas to me!!!!![][][]

I would have liked the wasp waist as well, but I drilled a little to close to the edge of the blank trying to include the sapwood. As far as the lathe, I turned it off to sand along the grain between grits, and when I flipped the switch to turn it back on, nothing happened. I spent half the day ruling out the switch and capacitor, and even pulled the motor apart to see if it was salvageable. It was a cheap HF 1/2 HP lathe, and I think most of the damage was done when I tried to turn some bowls with it a few months ago. IMO 1/2 HP is nowhere near enough power to turn a heavy chuck and a decent size bowl blank with. I did hate almost everything about the lathe, but I was only 3 pens away from completing the x-mas pen list, so I wish it had held out a little longer. I hear that Santa may be bringing me a gift cert to a WW store, so maybe I can get something a little better than I was looking at.