Which pen kit?

[budnder]

I was running a piece of wood through some purple cactus juice the other day, and there was a bit of room left over in the chamber, so I tossed in a short piece of "root ball" that I had recently salvaged. Honestly, I thought it might be a throwaway because it was a bit short and didn't look like much.

When I rounded it off after stabilizing it... wow, it was hiding something on the inside - some kind of mixture of hard and soft wood. It was 3.5" long and I wanted a single tube kit to keep that pattern intact. Going through the kits I had on hand, the best I could come up with was a Compson clicker. I have mixed feeling on doing that as the blank feels like it could be special and not in the same league as the Compson kit. Of course it may blow up when I try and turn it, so I could be fretting over nothing.

It got me thinking, though, what kit would you choose for that "special" 3.5 inch long blank?

Incidentally, I put CA on the joint between the harder wood and the softer wood to try and make sure it held together when I drilled it. That's why it kinda appears wet - it's the CA. Figure I'll have to do that a time or two when I turn it as well, just to be safe. It drilled out ok.

 

[More4dan]

Majestic Squire would work.

 

[ssalvage]

I'm always a sucker for a Chrome Elegant Sierra for something pretty like that.

 

[magpens]

I suggest an Artisan Long Clicker from CSUSA ... You may even have to add an accent piece to each end of your beautiful blank.

https://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/p/1/1170/Artisan-Clicker-Pen-Kit?term=long+clicker+pen

It has a tube length of 4.11"

A couple of sketch pencils have barrel lengths of 3.46", 3.5" ... one from WoodCraft and the other from PennState.

I also like to match the tube length to the available length in the blank.

 

[budnder]

Yeah, normally on a short blank I'd go to one of the Sierra variants, but I just couldn't bear to whack an extra inch of this guy. I like the Long Clicker better, but measured and came up short. I even thought about segmenting something on it to make it longer, but it's a pretty busy blank the way it is.

The sketch pencil is an interesting idea. I think I'll tack one of those on my next restock as well as a Knurl GT which from the charts looks like it might have been something I would like better than a Compson.

The good news is that it turned and finished without incident. I'll let it dry tonight and I guess we'll see what it looks like wearing a Compson tomorrow.

I realized after I posted, this is a dangerous thing, because I'll have to come clean if I screw it up

 

[ssalvage]

wow, that looks incredible! Very nice happy accident.
If you can't find a kit for it, feel free to send it my way. I'm sure I can come up with something. :wink: :biggrin:

 

[SteveG]

Zen will use the entire blank, and display it nicely.

 

[budnder]

Ooh, Zen... yeah, that would have been a winner. Have to pick some of those up also.

You can see it in the picture but the ray flecking or whatever in the lighter harder wood is amazing - it almost looks like a hologram or something as you rotate it. Not sure what the heck was going on with these roots that caused such a contrast.

I've got maybe another dozen blanks out of this root ball, so it will be interesting to see if this one is an exception. The others are larger pieces, in any case.

 

[magpens]

So .... you've already made the pen ? ... or at least committed to a blank/tube length ?

 

[budnder]

Yes - committed early on to something I had on hand, but it got me thinking... what do I wish I had? I think the answer to me for that was Zen and Knurl.

I just finished assembly this morning and posted pics over in the Show Us forum:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/purple-root-ball-140851/#post1854036

The Compson actually looked pretty good on it, and I was pleasantly surprised that the clicker action really felt nice. I've not had the best experiences with clickers in the past - I don't like the kind that "spin" on your thumb when you click.

All in all, it seems like a real good daily pen - feels good in the hand, the click is convenient, and the looks are definitely a conversation starter. We'll see if the longevity holds up. I think my wife will latch on to it as soon as she sees it.