Recovering from a crushed slimline

[mgatten]

I made a really pretty slimline pen today from a nice chunk of ebiara. I assembled it and, on the very last step as I pressed the cap/clip into the top, I pressed too hard and cracked the wood around the cap.

I was thinking I could disassemble, put that tube back on the lathe, cut an inch of the wood off, and then use a comfort twist pen kit with the rubber sleeve covering an inch of the brass tube. But then I realized that the comfort twist pens are a larger diameter and the rubber sleeve would be too thick.

Does anybody make a "comfort slimline" that comes with a thinner rubber sleeve?

Alternatively, is there a good way to remove about an eighth of an inch off a finished pen tube without ruining the wood around the cut and without distorting the brass tube?

 

[JimB]

You can turn away the cracked part and then glue on a contrasting wood, turn and finish.

 

[mgatten]

That's an interesting idea. I could use a cutoff from the end of one of my other blanks. It seems like it would be nearly impossible to turn it down to the diameter of the already-finished part without screwing up the finished part, though. How would you do that?

 

[Charlie_W]

That's an interesting idea. I could use a cutoff from the end of one of my other blanks. It seems like it would be nearly impossible to turn it down to the diameter of the already-finished part without screwing up the finished part, though. How would you do that?

You would be taking the finish off that blank and finishing it again after turning the add on and sanding. I would suggest adding more than just the 1/8".

Good Luck.

 

[thewishman]

You could just make the barrel of a contrasting material.