Advice and piccie request ...

[Kaspar]

Not sure this is the right place to post this. If not, Mods, please move to appropriate forum.

Has anyone here turned a pen out of M3 Gold (solid metal / color). Do you have a picture I could see? Do you like the result? How close to actual gold is the appearance?

 

[xmaddchillx]

here ya go buddy

http://www.metalpenblanks.com/Texatdurango.htm

 

[Kaspar]

Thanks!

So the poster found the result very satisfactory.

Has anyone turned the solid gold M3 specifically? Piccie? I want to see how golden it is.

 

[xmaddchillx]

I tell ya what.. these blanks do look pretty cool. Need to get into the hobby first though lol. Finally able to afford the lathe. Can't wait to attempt on these

 

[Kaspar]

I went ahead and ordered one piece of the M3 Gold. The solid colors might be useful to me. I'm thinking they it might be excellent accent / veneer material, and probably turn a great closed-end pen as well.

As for the rest, Mokume Gane and Damascus steel are a very special look (and something I hope to get into one day.) Those blanks aren't up to muster as far as I'm concerned. Not even all that close, really. I don't think the purveyors are really setting them up as replacements, of course. I certainly wish them well. The blanks are interesting in their own right, and if they sell pens, awesome.

 

[hughbie]

i won an M3 blank at our pen turners picnic last summer. when i finally decided on the kit to use with it, i turned it. that was the hardest stuff i've ever laid tool to. i might not have had the sharpest tools, but i did resharpen every couple of minutes.
when i finally was done, even after all the polishing, it still went 'matte' on the finish.
while it was on the lathe i used MM up to 12000, then plastic polish, and even some Ren Wax.....it was shiney on the lathe....but the next day it was matte, now that i think of it....maybe some CA to seal it first....oh well. here's a pic of mine....it's M3 black and gold (mostly gold) on a blk Ti baron

 

[MHKogan]

i won an M3 blank at our pen turners picnic last summer. when i finally decided on the kit to use with it, i turned it. that was the hardest stuff i've ever laid tool to. i might not have had the sharpest tools, but i did resharpen every couple of minutes.
when i finally was done, even after all the polishing, it still went 'matte' on the finish.
while it was on the lathe i used MM up to 12000, then plastic polish, and even some Ren Wax.....it was shiney on the lathe....but the next day it was matte, now that i think of it....maybe some CA to seal it first....oh well. here's a pic of mine....it's M3 black and gold (mostly gold) on a blk Ti baron

Did you try the Nuvite metal polish that was included with the M3 blank? M3 is a metal composite and needs to be polished with metal polish. Plastic polish and Ren Wax will not work.

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Eric, Ive done both the Damascus M3 and real Damascus, I think Mike the owner of M3 has a picture of both of my pens to show comparison on his web site. I've also done the M3 Mokume Gane and hope one day to do a real Mokume Gane . As to the closeness to real, not to bad and yes I've sold both and the real went for twice the price of the M3 as well it should have.

I went ahead and ordered one piece of the M3 Gold. The solid colors might be useful to me. I'm thinking they it might be excellent accent / veneer material, and probably turn a great closed-end pen as well.

As for the rest, Mokume Gane and Damascus steel are a very special look (and something I hope to get into one day.) Those blanks aren't up to muster as far as I'm concerned. Not even all that close, really. I don't think the purveyors are really setting them up as replacements, of course. I certainly wish them well. The blanks are interesting in their own right, and if they sell pens, awesome.

 

[penhead]

Kaspar,

Reading through the thread and I just happened to glance at your avatar...
...IMHO...that's funny..!!