Fibonacci
Member
Both pens are the new Virage from Berea. This is my first time making a virage, my first time with tru-stone, and my first time with M3. Today was possibly the best turning day I have ever had.
The turquoise is for my mother in law. It was my excuse for ordering the parts. I really did not expect it to come out anywhere near this nice. The pictures I had seen made me concerned that the web was kind of washed out in these blanks, but it was recommended to me as a material similar to M3 (but cheaper) and my wife picked it out.
Success.
The alt ivory was a couple of bonuses that I got with my order. I had been discussing my trepidation at ordering a blank more expensive than any two kit/pen combos that I have worked on before. R and B offered to send me a couple of scraps to try out before cutting into the expensive one. When I got the order, they had also included a piece of alternate ivory that had a defect in it. I segmented out the defect and came up with this pen.
I will definitely be buying more of these materials and pens!
Both materials turned like butter and look amazing. Pictures do not do any of these materials justice.
The virage pen is kind of kludgy, but works really well. I don't like having to take the nib, press in a tube as an adapter, then press in the coupler for the transmission. That seems like a sloppy design to me. Similarly with pressing the coupler into the finial. Other pens that I have worked with have those couplers designed into the components. That said, the virage goes together really, really smoothly. Each of the parts is a press until flush or press until it stops, so there is basically no margin for misadjustment. I have run the shape past a couple women so far and all of them love both the shape and the balance.
I would say Berea has a winner in this one. I would also say that R and B has demonstrated the level of customer service I only see in forums vendors these days. I will be ordering from them again.
The turquoise is for my mother in law. It was my excuse for ordering the parts. I really did not expect it to come out anywhere near this nice. The pictures I had seen made me concerned that the web was kind of washed out in these blanks, but it was recommended to me as a material similar to M3 (but cheaper) and my wife picked it out.
Success.
The alt ivory was a couple of bonuses that I got with my order. I had been discussing my trepidation at ordering a blank more expensive than any two kit/pen combos that I have worked on before. R and B offered to send me a couple of scraps to try out before cutting into the expensive one. When I got the order, they had also included a piece of alternate ivory that had a defect in it. I segmented out the defect and came up with this pen.
I will definitely be buying more of these materials and pens!
Both materials turned like butter and look amazing. Pictures do not do any of these materials justice.
The virage pen is kind of kludgy, but works really well. I don't like having to take the nib, press in a tube as an adapter, then press in the coupler for the transmission. That seems like a sloppy design to me. Similarly with pressing the coupler into the finial. Other pens that I have worked with have those couplers designed into the components. That said, the virage goes together really, really smoothly. Each of the parts is a press until flush or press until it stops, so there is basically no margin for misadjustment. I have run the shape past a couple women so far and all of them love both the shape and the balance.
I would say Berea has a winner in this one. I would also say that R and B has demonstrated the level of customer service I only see in forums vendors these days. I will be ordering from them again.
