Thanks for all the compliments guys. I was worried at first about the gold and the silver, but since there isn't a ton of gold in the blank it looks pretty classy to me.
I had heard all the rumors that it was a hard pen to turn and for the first barrel I definitely had the pucker factor up higher than normal, but the second blank took all of maybe 3 minutes to turn down to size. I didn't see it being that hard at all in my opinion. I don't know if they changed the formulation to be more resin than stone, but IMHO it turned just like any other hard resin pen except I don't get the real long curlies, just smaller curlies. I will say it had a funky smell wetsanding with the micro-mesh. Kinda like burning poo if you've ever smelled that.
I really hope that Caswell gets their buffs in soon so I can order a couple and some of their plastic polishing compounds that I've heard so much about. I really think that will be the cherry on top for this pen. I'm going to take it to work tomorrow and show it around, and if there is a lot of interest I may sell it.
Suprisingly I'm not a fan of the bigger pens. I love the elegant sierra. It's probably my most favorite pen to hold, and I have what many consider a larger hand.