Tulipwood barons with embellishments

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jtate

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skiprat

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Nicely done embeleshments Julia. Does the cb come apart to allow the replacing of the black ring for the wood, or do you have some trick to do that?

BTW, I think your square bowl is very cool too.:D
 

jtate

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I did the ring and the finial from the left over part of the blank after cutting off the parts for the barrel and cap.

I use a face plate more than a chuck. Just my preferece.

Screwed on a waste block, glued the little block in the center, turned that little block round.

I did the ring first them the finial. I measured the ID of the black ring that comes with the baron kit and hollowed the piece to match it. Then I measure the OD of the black ring that came with the kit and cut the outside to match. I finished this pen with CA so I dripped on a little and let it cure them MM'ed. Since it's just a little detail piece I didn't worry about a perfect finish on it.

The hard part is cutting the ring off. I started witha parting tool, then switched to a little hacksaw that I held against the spinning wood as the lathe turned slowing. Once it came off - well to tell the truth, it flew off into the shavings pile so I had to do it all over again.

With the second one, I sanded the unfinished side after cutting it off, put a little lacquer on it and hung it on a pin to dry.

The finial was pretty easy to make - harder to install. From the remaining wood glued to the face-plate and waste block, I turned a little mushroom and finished it with CA. I hacksawed it off at the point at which the mushroom stem would enter the ground (if it were a real mushroom).

I made a couple more rings and mushrooms from this block then used the remaining waste block to fix the end piece on which the finial is a little black piece. I cut a hole in the cetner of the waste block and jammed the part into the hole. I love jam chucks! They're tricky though. You have to get them tight. Once the part was in there, I started cutting with a detail gouge (fingernail grind) till I had cut through the black part and into the brass underlying the gold plating. You could use a jacobs chuck and drill bit to cut through the black part so it would all come off. I just used the detail gouge. Once I got the black piece off I just stuck the mushroom in it and dropped some glue inside the part (not CA, it makes a film on the gold plated nib part - DAMHIKT). After the glue sets up you just install the part as you normally would when assembling the pen.



And that's it!

Oh, I tried for a CA finish and failed dismally. Somebody should have told me how oily tulipwood is! Why did I not already know this! I'll be doing an acetone wipe the next time I use Tulipwood.

One of these if the failed CA finish and the other is a dipped lacquer finsih.

Julia
 

jhs494

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Awesome looking pair Julia! I think they both look great. The extra details turned them into something very special.

Thanks for sharing them with us!
 

kirkfranks

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Nice job Julia,
I can't decide which center-band I like best. How were you able to get beads on both sides using a faceplate? I am really impressed to get such small beads.

On the finial installation when I did mine I just used a HF punch to push (hit) the black finial out from the inside.
 

jtate

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Kirk,

That's a GREAT idea - the transfer punch to punch out the little black piece! Since they are actually made for punching out pieces, not all the various other uses we find for them.

That's WAY better than the jam chuck and detail gouge. I'm Soooo going to do that next time.

Julia
 

Texatdurango

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Originally posted by jtate

Billy,

Hey, at my age - I'm just pleased to have 'em noticed!

Julia

You know, I WAS going to say something along the lines of "atta girl, you really do some amazing things with your pens" but when I read your post above I got so tickled I forgot what I was going to say!:D
 

its_virgil

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Nice touch to the pens, Julia. I really like the wood CB ring and the end cap finial. Doing away with that little black ring all together (no replacement)makes the baron look like a different pen. Nice work.
Do a good turn daily!
Don
 

Randy_

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Nicely done, Julia!! Very elegant.

To carry your mods a step further, you might want to look at a closed end version or if you want to retain the posting capability, figure out a way to add a nice piece of wood to the posting end of the barrel to replace that gaudy hunk of metal above the threads.
 

workinforwood

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It's way better than I could do, so I'm not going to argue with that point. The idea's are inspirational indeed. Now..I have to tell you that in my opinion the top pen in photo 2 looks bent. I really don't think it is bent, but it looks like it is, and I think I figured out why. The lower barrel, the grain travels slightly angled. The cap has as much or more angle but the angle goes in the opposite direction. So it feels like the pen is bent where the cap and pen meet. I just wanted to point this possibility out to you. Maybe it's just me, or maybe nobody else wanted to mention it. Thank you for letting me see your skills and talents!
 

jtate

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Jeff,

Wow! It really does look bent! I think it's an artifact of the photography process more so than an issue with the grain in the wood. using my eyes instead of the lens, the pen doesn't look bent. The grain lines up nicely. Now the other one - I can't get the grain to line up right - and I used the PH vise, drilled in the cneter, carefully matched the parts so I'd be aware of which part went which way and still, I can't get the grain lined up right.

Sigh...

Always more challenges for the future!
 
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