Ball Point Pen Contest Voting

[bobleibo]

Vote Now!

Here we go, 25 Of The Finest Pens Around​

Round #1 Voting of the

Ball Point Pen Contest

Is Now Open

Please choose Your Favorite 3 Entries

The Top 10 Will Move On To Round #2 Voting

Congratulations To Each Of Our Entrants

Your Work Is Amazing and Much to Be Proud Of

Good Luck Everyone~
Bob​

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 1

This is a Southwest Ballpoint Pen kit from Penn State Ind. in antique copper with Red Coral accents
The wood is Red Mallee Burl from Australia that has both sap wood and heart wood. It made for a very pretty pen. I turned the barrels for this pen dead straight with a skew to keep the best look for this kit. My thought was to keep it simple and let the wood speak for itself while complimenting the style of the kit. After turning I sanded through 600 grit, then used CA for the finish. I put about 12 coats of CA on, then sanded the wrinkles out and polished with micromesh to 12000. I then polished with one step and then took it to the buffing wheel with carnuba

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 2

I used the Artisan Deco pen kit. I made it from a solid bar of copper that was drilled out and glued the tube in to make sure the parts fit right, then turned it on the lathe with carbide tools and polished on lathe, then buffed out. After buffing I used a ball peen hammer and peened the entire surface which took forever by the way.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 3

Majestic Squire Junior
My initial idea was to turn a pen from a single piece of Malachite, but in the end I decided to make it more interesting by adding some brass and a different shade of the semi-precious stone to the ends. The stone was drilled with a standard HSS drill and the initial turning was done with P80 sandpaper with a piece of plywood backing. Finished of with carbide tipped tools. No Finish was required as buffing brought out the beauty of the stone.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 4

I turned this beauty using a gorgeous piece of Amboyna Burl with sapwood. I was worried about losing the flow of the burl/sapwood between the upper and lower blanks, so I purposely did not cut a tenon , as described in the instructions. I cut both blanks to length, drilled the holes, and then squared the center band end of the upper barrel. I then inserted 1 7/8 inches of the brass tube into the upper blank, and when the glue had set, turned normally. Sanded and MM'd through 12,000 grit before applying CA finish. CA finish wet MM'd through 12,000 grit before assembly. Hope you like it.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 5

My pen is a PSI Vertex Click BP with a novel segmented barrel, finished in CA. The segmented barrel consists of a Chechen blank, 1/4" Birch dowel, red Box Elder, and brass. The square-cross-section blank was trued for squareness and cut a little longer than required. One dowel hole was drilled between diagonally opposite corners and the dowel was glued in. The next dowel hole was drilled in the same way after the glue for the first dowel had dried. After all four dowels had been inserted in this way, the ends were again squared. The blank was then cut accurately in half, and each half was reversed end-for-end. Now, each outer end showed a nice cirle of Birch in the center where all four dowels crossed. The brass shims and red Box Elder burl adornments were glued in and the whole clamped tightly. Then the segmented blank was rounded, tubed, shaped, and CA-finished with usual techniques.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 6

Gatsby Grande with a crochet thread cross wrap of hearts for my sweetie. Barrel was created with 2 colors of thread set with extended cure CA, then built up with many, many layers of thin flex CA and heptane based accelerator.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 7

The pen is a Sierra Gold with East Indian Rosewood Body, and a Holly Celtic Knot. The pic shows a little bleed over into the Holly which actually surprised me because I did not use any sandpaper in finishing. Perhaps the type of glue I used maybe picked up some wood dye and bled over to the Holly.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 8

Inlace Acrylester "Molten Metal"
After choosing to enter an Art Deco ballpoint in black titanium and gold I had to find the perfect pen blank with complementing colors. The blacks and golds in the Molten Metal black caught my eye and its dark ambers matched the amber crystal in the pen clip. After turning the blank with carbide cutters, the barrel was sanded with 400 and 600 grit Abranet sanding screen and then polished using the full range of Micromesh. The final polishing was done with Meguiar's Plastx.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 9

The kit is a two-toned chrome cigar kit. The wood used for this pen is white oak. I laminated 1/64" aluminum and 3/128" blue veneer to make sheets for the segments. For the upper barrel, I cut ¾" squares of the lamination, and glued them with epoxy in an arrangement that creates a 360° herringbone pattern when turned. After gluing together the herringbone, I had to carefully turn the assembly to rough round in order to make sure the herringbone section was perfectly centered. Once rounded, I filled in one end of the herringbone pattern with end grain white oak, placed the rough rounded aluminum and veneer section in a scroll chuck, and rough turned the wood portion of the upper barrel to rough round. I repeated the same process for the other end of the upper barrel. Then I glued blue dyed and stabilized maple pieces on the ends. Drilling for the tube was a slow process, even with a freshly sharpened bit. I made the lower barrel blank by cutting slots in the blank and filling them in with strips of the five-layer aluminum and veneer. Turning required a light touch with a round carbide cutter. After final shaping and sanding, I applied a CA finish, sanded and buffed to final.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 10

Pen Kit: Sierra Gold Titanium
Description: This pen is made from one of my favorite woods...Chittum Burl. The wood is stabilized and then turned. CA finish and then buffed and polished.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 11

Kit is a Perfect Fit in ti gold.
Pen is made using truestone with gold matrix. Turned between centers with a skew. I don't have pen mills and so working on the assumption the tubes are cut square I trim close to the tubes with the bandsaw then turn round using the bushings. I then remove the bushing at the tailstock end and mount it back on the lathe using the bushing at the headstock and just the live center at the tailstock. Then using a small parting tool I made from and old thickness planer blade turned on it's side I trim the end of the blank. As I trim the blank the point comes to rest on the brass tube and I square it up. Then do the other end the same way. Back on the lathe with both bushings and turn to a couple thou. oversize. Measured with micrometers, then wet sand to exact size up to 2000 grit and then plastic polish.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 12

Tempest kit from beaufortink.co.uk.
Maple burl with CA finish.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 13

The kit is a Lazerlinez Coyote. The blank is a chevron style (walnut and ash) divided by padauk, with padauk cap and Gisi plastic red/white/red accents.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 14

Pen kit is a "Kojent" from woodcraft. The blank came from a burl mallet found at an antique store and cut into blanks. The best I can find out is the wood is pinoak burl it was stabilized using stick fast 6 coats of thin CA glue sanded smooth 3 coats of Pens Plus friction polish and 2 coats Renaissance micro-crystalline wax

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 15

Pen is a Le Roi Elegant in Black and Chrome. The wood is Teak, which I segmented with Purpleheart and Aluminium. The finish is CA,

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 16

The pen is a bolt action in antique brass. The blank is white tail deer antler with jungle c- - - features.
After it was finished and polished the gloss was knocked down with some micro-mesh.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 17

This is a PSI Phoenix Rising kit in antique copper. The blank is a "Blank by Brooks" from Classic Nib. Wet sanded with MM and buffed. I like the blank because it looks like flames rising up, perfect for the Phoenix.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 18

A chrome vesper. The blank is made up of figured ash salvaged from a piece of fire wood. The red is cactus juice dyed curly maple with aluminum accents.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 19

Atlas BP Pen kit Gold
For this Atlas BP Pen kit, I used a cocobolo pen blank. This pen is pleasing to both the hand and eye. It's length is excellent for anyone carrying it in their pocket. The nearly 3" long tube and generally rotund shape was a pleasure to turn and finish.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 20

Kit: Knurl GT Chrome Twist Pen
Started by turning a boring piece of wood to the size of the pen. Sanded it down and started building layers of paint. Sealed the piece of wood with a couple layers of thin CA. I then used a variety of different paint from, black, orange and red. Each color was a different layer. Had to let each layer dry for at least 12 hours. From there I applied oxidized gold leaf on different parts of the barrel. (This gold leaf has greens, blues, and gold in it giving it extra depth). I went on to apply a couple layers of semi transparent red paint over it. Each layer needed time to dry. Finally I applied 20 layers of CA and finished like I normally do to get that beautiful glass like finish. I was trying to get an Urushi look and feel like this pen looks like it. There is incredible depth to this pen that a photo cannot capture when the light hits it.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 21

My entry is Ash with segmented blue veneer on a gun metal cigar.
The finish is CA

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 22

Pen is a Cigar Kit in Black & Gold Titanium, with a wooden blank of Staghorn Sumac

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 23

Kit: Editor ballpoint pen in Chrome
This is an Editor ballpoint pen in an Alumilite gold and black resin with gold segmented bands. The bands were cut and squared and glued with epoxy and then the pen was turned and finished.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 24

Padauk and yellow with an heart 8 strand Celtic knot on a Ti and gold Wall St II Elegant kit.

 

[bobleibo]

Pen 25

My entry is a titanium and platinum cigar. The body is a hybrid blank stabilized in cactus juice and cast by me. The wood is olive wood burl. The resin is Alumilite pressurized to 60 psi. Turned by me with a magic
skew, sanded and coated with approximately 10 coats of thin CA. Sanded to 800 grit again then polished with buffing wheels

 

[jttheclockman]

What in the world is going on here. :biggrin:

 

[skiprat]

There are some very special pens there... Well done to all that entered.
There are a few where it's pretty obvious who made them, but there are some that I'm very keen to see who made them.
Wish I could have taken part in at least one contest this year..just too busy.:frown:
Maybe next year..:neutral:

 

[BeeAMaker]

All are simply stunning

 

[jttheclockman]

I swear i posted to this thread this afternoon. Hope you guys do not delete this thread too:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

As I said earlier I find that every year this contests is the hardest to choose from. It is a shame that right off the bat so many good ideas will be lost. I say to each and everyone you are all winners. You can toss them all in a hat and pick blindfolded and come out with winners. There are no losers so hold your heads up high. If you do not move on in this contest do not fret about it because it all comes down to numbers and you became a victim of the numbers. Will need to study this one for sure. Thanks to all who entered.

 

[Dale Lynch]

Another fantastic yer in the ballpoint contest.Excellent pens on display,great work everyone.It is exciting to see so many participate in the bash.Good luck everyoneand keep those pens spining.

 

[Jim15]

These are all beauties.

 

[jttheclockman]

I think I wore the mouse out on my computer. Had 6 but man to get to 3 was agonizing. Good luck to all. As I said everyone of them is a winner. I hope my other 3 are in the finals then it will really kill me.:biggrin:

 

[jsolie]

Wow, that was hard--picking only 3 out of this excellent crop of pens.

 

[RobS]

Stop the madness!!!!!!!!!! How do I pick from all top of the line choices.