Smitty's Beta Test Pens

[theidlemind]

I've finally lived up to my end of the bargain (mostly).
I volunteered to beta test a new pen Smitty is going to carry and here are the results.





I went at this like I was a new turner with limited experience. I drilled, glued, squared, turned, polished, and assembled.
These components leave enough meat on the blank that unless you have a VERY translucent blank you won't have any problems with seeing the tube.
No back painting or tube painting required mostly.
Good components. The transmission is smooth, the finish is good, the twist is finial. I like them, and recommend them to anyone that turns the Sierra family.
And I ran the gamut on blanks. A couple of woodcraft cheapies, a couple of wood (curly ambrosial maple and buckeye burl), 3 homemade spacejunk blanks, and. Truestone blank.
Now it's up to Smitty to PCI one out. And if he has trouble I will repost this as a survey and let the members of the IAP decide which one he gets.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Smitty37]

A hard choice. They all look pretty nice to me. The Red swirl one jumps out really looks good in the Chrome/Black chrome. But my taste runs to wood and counting down from the top in the first picture I would like number 7.

Thank you.

I've finally lived up to my end of the bargain (mostly).
I volunteered to beta test a new pen Smitty is going to carry and here are the results.

View attachment 113124
View attachment 113125
View attachment 113126

I went at this like I was a new turner with limited experience. I drilled, glued, squared, turned, polished, and assembled.
These components leave enough meat on the blank that unless you have a VERY translucent blank you won't have any problems with seeing the tube.
No back painting or tube painting required mostly.
Good components. The transmission is smooth, the finish is good, the twist is finial. I like them, and recommend them to anyone that turns the Sierra family.
And I ran the gamut on blanks. A couple of woodcraft cheapies, a couple of wood (curly ambrosial maple and buckeye burl), 3 homemade spacejunk blanks, and. Truestone blank.
Now it's up to Smitty to PCI one out. And if he has trouble I will repost this as a survey and let the members of the IAP decide which one he gets.

Thanks for looking.

 

[theidlemind]

Nice choice!
That's a curly ambrosia maple blank from a tree that grew on Center street in my home town of Berea, KY.
I occasionally offer boxes of blanks from that tree, it might be time for another offering.
Thanks for letting me participate Smitty!

 

[eranox]

Very nice! I mostly see acrylic pens displayed on his site, but that ambrosia maple is going to be hard to pass up! Even more tempting that it's local to you.

The space junk pens are cool, too! What's the black one near the top? Is that the TruStone?

 

[theidlemind]

The truestone is the white one, clear ivory.
The black one is a stray acrylic that looks a lot like ebonite.
The curly maple is a stunner for sure.