As a reply to ALL who offered your encouraging comments, THANKS! I've had a couple suggestions that I make some to resell, here. I'm not ready for that yet. I'm not sure what the long term satisfaction is going to be with this combination. I am beginning to feel that it should be cast immediately after casting, as one or two of the pieces I had left from this first cutting seem to be more curved than they were a couple days ago. Considering all the holes, this makes sense. The finished pen is beginning to show some dull spots in the CA finish. I think I'll hold onto it for a while, then hit a couple more coats of CA, to see if it's even a saleable item. What do Y[all think? Incidentally, if you want to try it, I used Castin'Craft PR from Michaels, Reverse painted inside of blank with Delta Ceramacoat "jubilee green" acrylic paint (probably got that a Michaels also). I used "Brass Ager" (available from Indy-Pen-Dance) to darken the tube, so If I scratched the paint when inserting the tube, it would not shine through, and at the same time give "0" size increase to the tube. The whole dang process from cutting to finishing is MESSY!!! :curse: