Question about Poker Pen kit from Lazerliners

[Freethinker]

Hi;

I recently bought a couple of the Poker Pen kits (Jr. Gent size) from Constant at Lazerliners.

The heart/diamond inserts are dyed an acceptable shade of red, but the club/spade inserts look to be walnut (note; this is NOT any sort of a knock against Lazerliners. I have found Constant to be very fair and helpful with anything I have dealt with him on) or some other dark brown wood.

I would like to have them be a bit more black looking, as would befit a spade on a playing card.

Does anyone here know of a good way to accomplish that?

I had thought of using ebony dye and a very small applicator of some kind to try to place a drop or two of dye in the middle of the inlay and 'nudge' it to the edges, but I am concerned that some of it my leach into the surrounding maple wood and discolor it. Also, even if that method is workable, I think I would have to have the pen turned down to very near finished size before applying said dye in order to have it penetrate deeply enough to still be black after sanding the barrels.

Has anyone here tried to darken the inserts, or know of a more safe way/more colorfast way to go about it?

Maybe I should just turn it as is and leave the inserts somewhat lighter than full black, but if anyone has a suggestion or has used some technique to address this issue with the inserts, i'd be eager to hear it.

Thanks.

 

[jttheclockman]

I would say before you do anything to the pen, contact the person and maybe he can make up another pen using darker colored woods. Should not be too hard to do. The problem with dying the woods and being I have not seen the kit and how much turning you have to do, but if you dye the woods and the dye does not penetrate enough so that when you turn away what needs to be, the color maybe awful looking and blotchy.

 

[Russianwolf]

if you have already glued the kit together, I think you will have to live with it the way it is.

If you haven't done anything with he kit yet, maybe you can dye it. I would contact Constant and see if he can make one for you out of African Blackwood or Ebony of you want them really black.

 

[Freethinker]

if you have already glued the kit together, I think you will have to live with it the way it is.

If you haven't done anything with he kit yet, maybe you can dye it. I would contact Constant and see if he can make one for you out of African Blackwood or Ebony of you want them really black.

Thanks for the responses, guys.

Russianwolf, the kit comes with the club/hearts/spades inserts already glued into place, so that rules out dyeing them beforehand.

I tried a bit of the ebony dye finally, but could not get it to penetrate deeply enough that I did not wind up turning/sanding it all away.

I finally just finished the kit the way it was....one of the club inserts is --unfortunately-- decidedly less black than the others and just looks like an average piece of brownish walnut.

As to the comment about **if I want them really black**........???

Yes, I most definitely DO want them to be black.

On a playing card, the spades and clubs are black, not walnut colored. I cannot figure out why a piece of very dark ebony or blackwood was not used for the insert in the first place...................oh well.

To me this detracts very much from the look of the pen, which was to be a *poker* pen..............especially when you're paying around $40 bucks for a pen kit consisting of a couple of maple barrels with small inserts in them.