Dalmatian Ebony & metal inlay. MY MILE STONE

[alxe24]

CA finish is not my forte especially in Ebony. Every time I make a pen I keep on trying the finish.
I can't tell you how happy I'm with this one. I feel as excited as when I turned my first pen with friction finish multilied times 2.
Which background you think is best for this pen. I like the darker one, it shows the colors of the pen and contrast better I think.


Just in case I mess up the pen while assembling I made sure I took a pic of the blanks.

 

[penodr]

Nice job. I really like that one, the finish is very nicely done.

Dave

 

[bgray]

Fantastic Pen. I really like that material, as well, and of course, your finish is great.

 

[Ozzy]

Nice pen, great finish. I like the darker background, the lighter one takes away from the pen.

 

[thewishman]

Beautiful wood, nice shapes and great finish - the whole shebang.

Chris

 

[angboy]

Very nice pen. Very shiny finish! [] But in contrast to others, I prefer the lighter background. Maybe a darker background without patterning in it would be good, but especially on the third picture down, the pen really seems to blend into the background for me. The brown is too close in color to the black of the pen, and the pen has a similar mottled sort of pattern as the background.

One question- I guess I'm not seeing an inlay part of the pen- what part is that?

 

[twoofakind]

Very nice finish. If all of your pens come out like this one, you might need to diffuse your lights to keep the reflection down. Nice looking pen.

Andy

 

[wdcav1952]

Angela,

It looks to me as if there are some small areas of metallic dust fill in the area of the clip. Though it might look different in person, I would tend to prefer fill in with sanding dust or just CA for depth.

Not trying to be a nit-picker, Alex. It is a beautiful piece of work.

 

[Penmonkey]

Dang that is a nice pen!

 

[GaryMGg]

Yeah buddy. That's great! Superb finish, great wood, good kit match. WooHoo. [8D]

 

[Stevej72]

Beautiful pen! Very nice job on the CA finish. I like the darker background.

 

[JimGo]

WOW! VERY nice. I like the first set of pics.

 

[jjenk02]

I just have one word for the pen WOW

 

[Tuba707]

Excellent work - what was your source for that wood? It looks incredible.

 

[Radman]

Looks VERY nice. It appears you've got a good handle on the photography aspect as well.

 

[LostintheWoods]

Now, there's a great looking pen!

 

[BRobbins629]

I see why you are happy. I would be too. Great finish.

 

[Jim15]

Excellent pen and finish.

 

[Awoodfan]

Fantastic work on both the pen and the photos. I prefer the lighter background personally.

Ron

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[broitblat]

Nice job on the pen, the finish, and the pics.

-Barry

 

[beathard]

Very loud applause! I like the darker background, but would prefer less pattern in the background.

 

[bob393]

Realy nice work, finish, and wood! I like the dark background.

 

[skiprat]

You guys that have finishes like that really like to rub our noses in it, don't you? I hope your fingers get all CA'ed up!!! And your lathe packs in!!!

Awesome pen by the way...................[]

 

[CaptG]

OUTSTANDING. Love the pen and awesome finish. Time for me to go practice some more.

 

[alxe24]

Thank you all very much for your comments.
Angboy the metal I used is brass, it seems to blend pretty good with the pen and the cracks and voids on the pen were not to big. The first picture where the tubes appear shows a bit more I guess. Off course in person is a lot easier to see them.
Tube 707 I got the wood on Ebay. Dno't tell anyone but I way over pay then. Seems like there were more people that really like it. I got 5 pieces for $30 not stabilized or anything. In fact they need some TLC before I could even drill them.
Again thanks to all.

 

[wudnhed]

Gorgeous!!!!!!!!

 

[JDPens]

Fantastic pen!!!

 

[csb333]

Is that pure CA or CA/BLO? Whatever it is, it looks great! Will you describe your technique for us? - Thank You, Chris

 

[alxe24]

Chris: I am not the CA guru but I'll describe to you what I did.
I started by sanding all the way to 1500 grit using Myland sanding sealer between grits up to 600 grit I wanted the grain and pores to be totally filled (open grain = less gloss)
When I was ready with the sanding I cleaned the tubes with DA ,got the paper applicators ready and folded. I use any kind of paper towel. I've tried all kinds of things up to now. The way this one came out was with 2 drops of BLO per barrel. I put only 2 drops of the BLO on the paper and coat one blank then I put 5 drops of thin CA on the applicator I used for the blo and without much preassure apply that. I did a total of 5 coats. I noticed that with each coat the pen was looking better. On the last coat I cleaned again with DA and MM to 12000. Ren Wax and I tried the buffer with white diamond (I did not find a whole lot of an improvement with that) so I took it back to the lathe and recoat Ren Wax.
That is what I did. Not much different that everyone else. I guess is practicce practice practice and the some more. There are as many methods as there are turners I guess.
Regards,
Alex

 

[Pipes]

Great all around pen I prefer the lighter background IMO to dalamatian it has to be a lite background like the dog :O)!!

NO matter its a GREAT pen
[]

pipes

 

[reef12]

That is a really nice pen their.

great finish.[]

 

[NavyDiver]

WOW! That's some beautiful wood and a fantastic finish!

 

[stevers]

Boy that makes me want to try a CA finish. That shine is impresive. Wow.[:0]