need advice

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Penultimate

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Aug 22, 2010
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Greetings
I was about to start turning Walnut blanks for a Rockler Gold El Grande and I noticed the black plastic finial on the cap is cracked. It will be easy to make a new one but I'm not sure what wood to use. I would like to use walnut but I don't have any more from the blank so the grain won't match. Would that look OK anyway. Should I use a light wood like Cherry for contrast? I may replace the black plastic finial on the pen also just to balance it out.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
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okiebugg

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Dec 5, 2010
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Jenks, Oklahoma
Greetings
I was about to start turning Walnut blanks for a Rockler Gold El Grande and I noticed the black plastic finial on the cap is cracked. It will be easy to make a new one but I'm not sure what wood to use. I would like to use walnut but I don't have any more from the blank so the grain won't match. Would that look OK anyway. Should I use a light wood like Cherry for contrast? I may replace the black plastic finial on the pen also just to balance it out.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

IMO, I probably would use a piece of pink ivory, or ebony for the finial Just for the contrasting difference
 

its_virgil

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Jan 1, 2004
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Wichita Falls, TX, USA.
I don't think grain matching will be an issue. If you use a contrasting wood, go darker...at least that would be my preference.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Greetings
I was about to start turning Walnut blanks for a Rockler Gold El Grande and I noticed the black plastic finial on the cap is cracked. It will be easy to make a new one but I'm not sure what wood to use. I would like to use walnut but I don't have any more from the blank so the grain won't match. Would that look OK anyway. Should I use a light wood like Cherry for contrast? I may replace the black plastic finial on the pen also just to balance it out.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
 

toddlajoie

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Feb 6, 2010
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1,728
Location
Feeding Hills MA
I've made probably 5 or 10 El Grande pens, and I thin that cap has cracked on at least 3 of them. I've stopped making them for that reason, and I'm not really a big fan of the significant amount of black plastic. Never thought of trying to make a new final out of wood or acrylic, but now I'm going to have to give it a shot!!! Thanks,and good luck!
 

jskeen

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Oct 11, 2007
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Crosby, Texas, USA.
Replacing the finials on the El Grande is a popular (and very effective) upgrade to the kit, even when they don't crack. I would think the premium approach would be Ebonite, in black, and with the contours changed just enough to make it apparent something was different when placed next to a stock kit. Then you can double the price on the upgraded pen and display it right in the middle of several stock pens. That way when somebody asks "why is that one so much more" you can explain all the differences. Somebody that doesn't know pens will likely say "that's cool, but I think I'll take the original one there" and feel like they got a good deal on a pen that was just as cool looking for half the price. A real pen person will eventually come along and say "ahh, ebonite. This guy really knows his stuff, I need to buy that and a couple of these others over here too" :)

For this to work best however, you probably should put the walnut tubes on a stock kit and get some premium burl in a lighter color like big leaf maple or amboynia for the ebonite version.

Of course if you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can always just take the kit back to rockler, they should give you a replacement no questions asked.
 
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Penultimate

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Thanks for the advise. I have some ebony so I think I will try that. I'm now thinking of drilling out the center pf the ebony and filling it with a light contrasting wood.
jskeen, thanks for the the upgrade/upsell story that will help in the future.
 
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