some theme pens

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Joe Melton

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Tried something new this week, mass production. Started with blanks for 30 pens and 30 Euro kits. This is what I ended up with. These have the transferable theme clips, and I hope to sell some in the next craft show.
From left to right: olive, cottonwood burl, sapele, tasmanian eucalytus, zebrawood, wenge, bloodwood, canarywood, ash, padauk, iroko, wamara, european beech, butternut, santos mahogany, myrtle burl, Australian lacewood and red oak.
More to follow....


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Joe Melton

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Here are the rest of them. Again, from left to right:
spalted birds eye maple (with no apparent spalting nor birds eyes), mesquite, figured maple with brown stain, cocobolo, madrone burl, goncalo alves, nogal, afzelia, koa, Burma wild teak, lace sheoak, and chechen.


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I grabbed some pretty plain blanks because the kits were the 24k ones that probably won't last. I'll probably have to go out of town to sell these!
I glued up 60 half blanks with thick ca, without sanding the tubes, and lost only two blanks in turning. I replaced the two blown ones and didn't lose anything else. I did have a lot of trouble sleeping the night after I inhaled all those glue fumes, though. I should have done the gluing outside.
This was my first time to use Waterlox Satin. Put on two coats and then used Ren Wax. The finish is pretty good, but not wonderful. (The images looked better before I squeezed them down to fit Yahoo's size restriction.) I do think the finish should be pretty durable. Surely it will outlast the gold plating.
Total time was about 10 hours, or 20 minutes each. Material cost was about $6.50 each, so these should be profitable, if they sell.
This experience convinced me I don't want to make pens eight hours a day for a job. It also told me I have been wasting my time sanding the tubes prior to gluing.
Compliments and flattery are welcome, of course.
Joe
 
Glenn McCullough

Glenn McCullough

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Grosse Pointe Woods, mi, USA
Joe,
I like them all. I would not place a tube in a blank without sanding first. At first, it may seem redundant, but after having to service and reglue even those that I did sand, I wouldnt take the chance! It takes a few minutes more, but it has your name on it! If you are going to skip anything, skip only the 12,000 micromesh step and that is all(LOL)! (IMHO)
 
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