Will all the talk about cigar pens I thought I would post some pics of one I am in the progress of making. It is a macanudo. The glue on the label is drying and my garage is too hot to work for now so I thought I would take a few pics and show them.
I tried a different wood this time, going for the kinda greenish tint to some of the Macanudo cigar wrappers. It is a piece of box elder burl, dyed with a homemade mix of yellow and black. I think it turned out nice. If you are a cigar smoker, it looks like you could pick it up and smoke it. Sometimes I put an ash end on it using acrylic, as I did with this one, but I mostly make them without to resemble an unlit cigar. This one I had a problem with the length when I was drilling and had to put it on.
When I make these kind of pens, the hardest part is getting the centerband(though bandless) to match up in exact size. So i made a little jig of sorts out of maple that tightly fits into each tube. It sure helps.
First I get the blank rough rounded then drill, glue and sqaure the tubes. Rather than use my closed end mandrels at this step and put the two pieces back to gether using the jig and turn them just like a blank I'm sizing on the lathe till I get the right size. I then sand to 600, separate and clean up and finish the ends of the pen using the mandrels.
At this stage, after the label is dry from gluing I coat it with a thin coat of decoupage hard coat, let it dry for a day and then finish on the mandrels as usual with CA and BLO. I don't know of anyway to seal the whole thing to protect and keep this same raw matt finish so if anyone knows how, I would appreciate any pointers.
I tried a different wood this time, going for the kinda greenish tint to some of the Macanudo cigar wrappers. It is a piece of box elder burl, dyed with a homemade mix of yellow and black. I think it turned out nice. If you are a cigar smoker, it looks like you could pick it up and smoke it. Sometimes I put an ash end on it using acrylic, as I did with this one, but I mostly make them without to resemble an unlit cigar. This one I had a problem with the length when I was drilling and had to put it on.
When I make these kind of pens, the hardest part is getting the centerband(though bandless) to match up in exact size. So i made a little jig of sorts out of maple that tightly fits into each tube. It sure helps.
First I get the blank rough rounded then drill, glue and sqaure the tubes. Rather than use my closed end mandrels at this step and put the two pieces back to gether using the jig and turn them just like a blank I'm sizing on the lathe till I get the right size. I then sand to 600, separate and clean up and finish the ends of the pen using the mandrels.
At this stage, after the label is dry from gluing I coat it with a thin coat of decoupage hard coat, let it dry for a day and then finish on the mandrels as usual with CA and BLO. I don't know of anyway to seal the whole thing to protect and keep this same raw matt finish so if anyone knows how, I would appreciate any pointers.
