Thanks for all the kind words. Truth is, I'm only about 80% satisfied with this one. There were a few tricks to doing this pen that I'm willing to share.
First of all, I've had those blanks for a good six months, maybe more. After
my first experience with Casein (in which the barrels dried out and separated from the fittings a tiny bit,) I waited on these remaining blanks to let them "acclimate" to this area. One of them deformed slightly, and another bulged at one end a bit. I'm going to ask mom in a couple of months if anything has happened to this pen, since she lives in a very dry climate. Casein is pretty unstable and high maintenance. Even big boy, Conway Stewart, doesn't do anymore casein pens because of the problems it has. Here's hoping these blanks have stabilized at least for a climate similar to where I am.
Another problem I had: the radial starburst pattern is usually not perfectly centered through the long axis. I solved that problem in the following way. Trim the ends to square them. Mark where the center of the sunburst is at each end (you'll kind of have to eyeball that.) Take a piece of scrap that is perfectly squared and smaller than the overall diameter of the blank. Drill a tiny hole through the center of it (I'm assuming you drill on the lathe, or in some other highly accurate fashion.) Looking through the drill hole, center the square piece over the mark delineating the center of the starburst, and glue it with heavy CA. You can glue another such piece at the other end, but I just hit the mark with a center punch, and that was enough for the point of the live center to hold onto. Now you can chuck the piece in a four jaw chuck, and turn it down to the new center. (FYI, I use a metal lathe.) It will be eccentric at first, of course, put it'll come round pretty much around the center of the pattern, if you have a good eye.
Is the centerband just one tenon with the small rings slide over or is there several small tenons there? Are the rings glued of just pressure fit on there? And is the cap finial glued or threaded?
Thanks
I cut three tenons, one large and two small. Then, I got the Lucite perfectly square, cut off enough of the ribbonless part for my needs, and then split it down the middle on my Jim Saw. Of course, the saw blade removes part of it, and it is no longer perfectly square. So I used the Jim Saw to get it square again (when you put the split pieces together,) and then chucked the split pieces together in the four jaw chuck, and drilled out the diameter I wanted down the center of the split. The piece then splits apart but put together forms perfectly around your tenon. (Kind of like
the old fashioned stocks they used to imprison public offenders in Revolutionary New England.) Yes, you can see the dividing lines. There might be a way to mitigate that a bit, but if done accurately, you'd have to be looking for it to see it. That way I did not have to cut the casein and mess up the grain. Oh, and I had some small air bubbles, but I'll do it better next time, I hope.