First knot

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MyKidsDad

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Nov 27, 2008
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146
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Edmond OK
Decided to make my sister a pen for her birthday. I emailed her links to several pen suppliers and asked her to give me an idea of what she wanted in terms of pen kit and blanks. She has MS and often experiences numbness in her writing hand so she specifically requested the comfort grip pen. She said to surprise her with the blank. She is pretty active in her church so I thought she might appreciate the olive wood (bought it on ebay from a seller in Isreal as Jerusalem olive wood but the certificates and tags that came with it say Bethlehem olive wood). She also used to be pretty big into Irish/Celtic music so I though I would finally try my hand at a Celtic knot. The knot is red heart. I suppose bloodwood might have fit the church theme a bit better but I don't really like bloodwood and already had the red heart on hand.

Anyway, I have some work to do to get better at the knots. I have a pretty good set up for cutting the blank and the strips for the knot, just need to work on a better set up for holding everything square and in place during glue up. I don't think it is too bad for my first try but it isn't perfectly symmetric either. Anybody have a good glue up set up they want to share?

I didn't get the knot centered as well as I wanted on the bottom tube either. Thanks for looking.
IMG_3072a.jpg
 
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jttheclockman

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Feb 22, 2005
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NJ, USA.
You did do a good job on the first and you learned where you need to improve. A couple things. Make the blank longer than you need it so when you cut it you can center it better. As far as gluing goes go to the home cnter and get yourself a piece of 1" angle aluminum. This will help keep the blank at 90 degrees at all times. I clamp the blank to the back and to the bottom and the blank has to sit just right. Over the weekend I am going to be making a couple knots I hope to anyway and I will try to take some photos as I do it. In the mean time I am sure you will get more help here. Good luck and thanks for showing the pen.
 

MyKidsDad

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Nov 27, 2008
Messages
146
Location
Edmond OK
Make the blank longer than you need it so when you cut it you can center it better.

I actually did the knot before I cut the blank apart into top and bottom. I thought I had it measured out better than I did but when I parted off the end of the bottom tube to accept the rubber grip, well, you see the result. I think it is mostly because I measured from one end and then glued the tube in from the other end and didn't get it placed like I wanted it.

The aluminum angle is a good idea and I'd appreciate seeing pics of your setup when you're making them.
 

RonMc

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Joined
Feb 28, 2009
Messages
2
Location
McKinney, TX
Eric.
Nicely done! What type of glue are you useing? Medium? If so I made many segmented pens by gluing together and then squeezing together with fingers and spraying with accelerate.
I liked to do it on a page of a note pad so that I could pull the blank off when done and then sand the rough edges with a belt sander.
What ever you do have fun with it!
 
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