Sylvanite
Member
This is another pen I made for the Birthday Bash. It was my submission for the Antler, Bone, or Horn Contest, and like my other entries, it was a learning experience.
This was the first time I've used crushed turquoise, and if I'd known before starting what I found out along the way, I'd have done a few things differently. I cut the six helical grooves with a Beall Pen Wizard using a metal burr in a Dremel tool, taking light cuts in multiple passes. I wasn't sure how deep I needed to go for the turquoise pieces, so I kept cutting until I reached the brass. That was a mistake. I should have left a bit of antler at the bottom.
I glued in the turquoise by floating some thin CA glue into the groove and sprinkling the turquoise in. I repeated that along each cut and around the pen until it was built up above flush. Then I saturated them with more CA, let it cure, and turned it back down.
That worked, but there were several places where the brass was visible. I wound up drilling those spots out with a tiny drill bit and filling them in with powdered turquoise. As you can see, the turquoise chips also didn't always fill flush to the edge of the grooves either.
In hindsight, I should have cut less deep, glued the turquoise chips in individually, and filled the gaps with powdered turquoise before flooding with thin CA. That way the edges would be clean and the brass wouldn't show through. That's my plan for next time.
Anyway, I hope you like the pen and enjoyed my ramblings. Thanks for looking,
Eric
This was the first time I've used crushed turquoise, and if I'd known before starting what I found out along the way, I'd have done a few things differently. I cut the six helical grooves with a Beall Pen Wizard using a metal burr in a Dremel tool, taking light cuts in multiple passes. I wasn't sure how deep I needed to go for the turquoise pieces, so I kept cutting until I reached the brass. That was a mistake. I should have left a bit of antler at the bottom.
I glued in the turquoise by floating some thin CA glue into the groove and sprinkling the turquoise in. I repeated that along each cut and around the pen until it was built up above flush. Then I saturated them with more CA, let it cure, and turned it back down.
That worked, but there were several places where the brass was visible. I wound up drilling those spots out with a tiny drill bit and filling them in with powdered turquoise. As you can see, the turquoise chips also didn't always fill flush to the edge of the grooves either.
In hindsight, I should have cut less deep, glued the turquoise chips in individually, and filled the gaps with powdered turquoise before flooding with thin CA. That way the edges would be clean and the brass wouldn't show through. That's my plan for next time.
Anyway, I hope you like the pen and enjoyed my ramblings. Thanks for looking,
Eric
