pen 9
The kit is a two-toned chrome cigar kit. The wood used for this pen is white oak. I laminated 1/64" aluminum and 3/128" blue veneer to make sheets for the segments. For the upper barrel, I cut ¾" squares of the lamination, and glued them with epoxy in an arrangement that creates a 360° herringbone pattern when turned. After gluing together the herringbone, I had to carefully turn the assembly to rough round in order to make sure the herringbone section was perfectly centered. Once rounded, I filled in one end of the herringbone pattern with end grain white oak, placed the rough rounded aluminum and veneer section in a scroll chuck, and rough turned the wood portion of the upper barrel to rough round. I repeated the same process for the other end of the upper barrel. Then I glued blue dyed and stabilized maple pieces on the ends. Drilling for the tube was a slow process, even with a freshly sharpened bit. I made the lower barrel blank by cutting slots in the blank and filling them in with strips of the five-layer aluminum and veneer. Turning required a light touch with a round carbide cutter. After final shaping and sanding, I applied a CA finish, sanded and buffed to final.