Statesman Ironwood

[chrisk]

A few pics before delivering this pen (a Statesman Rollerball with Rhodium/Black Titanium plating). The Desert Ironwood Burl is a pen blank from Bad dogs burls. Before concluding the sanding process (at 180 grit) I CA sanded the blank (at 0,015" before the final diameter) to close some minor imperfections. After sanding to 600 grit, I closed the grain with cellulosic sealer and Beall buffed it, first with the White diamond and finally with the Wax wheel.
And yes it can be done without CA.

Sorry for the pictures but too late to improve. And tomorrow the pen will rest in the customer's home.
Thanks for looking and commenting.
Christos.

 

[BSea]

That looks really good. DIW is just about my favorite wood (once it's finished).

 

[G1Pens]

I love Desert Ironwood and your pen makes great use of it.

 

[ToddMR]

What a great looking burl! Everything is spot on and I bet they are going to love this pen.

 

[chrisk]

Thank you all for the warm words.

Yes Todd, this pen had a great success on a show I attended the last week-end. The customer had not enough money with him and after he left my booth with my card he came back and asked: may I give you an advance in order to reserve this pen? Of course, Sir...

I really like DIW burls and of course the Statesman.
I had another Statesman, a fountain pen with 22K/Rhodium plating and a Maydu burl blank: also sold. The lady fell in love with this pen (unfortunately not with me...). I hope she will stay in touch so I'll take some pics of this pen.

 

[bobjackson]

Elegant looking pen. Nice job.

 

[TexasTaxi]

Very elegant and rich! I like it!

 

[IPD_Mr]

Very nicely done Christos. Good choice and explanation of your finishing process.

 

[PaulDoug]

That is beautiful and I like your finish. Looks like wood instead of plastic coated wood. I've always been leery of using white diamond on wood, afraid I would get white in the pours and not be able to get it out. Sure worked nice for you.

 

[MartinPens]

Beautiful piece of ironwood and a very well done pen. Thanks for sharing it and your process of finishing.

Martin

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner

 

[chrisk]

Thanks again to all of you.

Paul, the White Diamond finishing is not applied on bare wood. Instead, after the sanding process, with lathe stopped, I apply generously up to 5 coats (depending on wood species) of cellulosic sanding sealer. And the White Diamond wheel function is to equalize those sealer layers. Afterwards, the wax gives the final luster.

This finish is quite new for me. In fact, while my traditional finish remains unchanged in essence, the application differs.
About fifteen years ago, I began to finish my pens with cellulosic sanding sealer and pure carnauba wax. Several coats of sealer were applied at +/-1600 RPM. The main reason: to fill the grain. Without serious drying (about 15 minutes max.) of those sealer coats, I melted pure carnauba wax (pure carnauba stick applied on wood at 3.000 RPM) and concluded by buffing.

While I didn't give up the latter finishing, I shifted to buffing wheels. Same finish, different process. Meanwhile, in this new kind of application, I let the sealer dry for 24 hours. Another thing: while the sealer is applied generously it's better to wipe out every excess before the sealer dries.

Hope this helps and that my English is understandable to all.

PS: to be honest (and if I remember well), I shifted to the Beall buffing, influenced by an Ed Davidson video on bottle stoppers. His finishing process: cellulosic sanding sealer + Beall buffing (I don't remember exactly if he used the White Diamond wheel). In the meantime I experienced some issues with my own finishing process, that is some rims by applying either the sealer or the Carnauba wax, seemingly due to the pen mandrel's sligth out of round. Thus the Beall buffing was a great improvement.