TimS124
Member
I'd previously made a pink coral Tru Stone seam ripper for her which she's been very happen with...oh yeah, and it needed to be ready tonight to send first thing in the morning with a mutual friend (she lives about 300 miles away and having the friend bring it with them on a visit is cooler than snail mailing it).
I started fulfilling this request by trying to round up another piece of the same Tru Stone...whew, still had one piece on hand!
OK, next, which letter opener kits do I have on hand? Hmmmm....gold...nope, just doesn't look right with pink...keep looking! Finally found some "gun metal" colored letter opener kits in a box....looks great with antler but didn't look right with pink coral. This is a job for chrome!
Hit the road to my local Woodcraft and the only chrome letter opener kit they stock is too fancy (looks excessively bling-ish which was all wrong for this friend).
Went home grumpy and frustrated that I'd miss the chance to promptly fulfill the friend's request. Started poking around on a few of my favorite vendor sites to see who had the right chrome package...when I spotted a cool pink & black blank...wait a minute...I think I have some of those blanks on hand!
Dug through my receipts and sure enough, somewhere in my shop I allegedly have five of those (maybe 4 as I probably already used at least one and only ordered 5 way back when).
Ah, that should go well with the dark gun metal kit!
Started laying out the parts and noticed the default tube size that comes with the kit was pretty short. This friend is older and a more generous handle would probably be much more comfortable and a bit easier to use...fortunately, I also had a stash of replacement tubes in 10inch lengths!
I drilled the blank to the full depth of the flutes on my Colt parabolic 7mm bit (the bit is nearly six inches long and the flutes are a little short of 5" long). Oh yeah, this will make a proper sized handle!
I didn't like the metal plug for the top of the letter opener kit so I pulled out "The Grabber" mandrel I'd purchased a while back from Penn State. I'd used it only once before and really like the results it allows (but hadn't made anything that would work with it in a while). Ironically, that prior project also used a pink blank.
Three views of the result of all this are are shown in the enclosed photo. The handle material was one of Woodturningz's "Pink Zebra" blanks from their "Genesis' line. The letter opener kit is also from Woodturningz. Since I had to rush to get it handed off in time, I only paused long enough to grab a couple quick phone photos.
I'm hoping she'll be as pleased with this as she has been with the Pink Coral Tru Stone seam ripper...after the initial shock wears off as the Pink Zebra blank has a lot more figure going on!
I started fulfilling this request by trying to round up another piece of the same Tru Stone...whew, still had one piece on hand!
OK, next, which letter opener kits do I have on hand? Hmmmm....gold...nope, just doesn't look right with pink...keep looking! Finally found some "gun metal" colored letter opener kits in a box....looks great with antler but didn't look right with pink coral. This is a job for chrome!
Hit the road to my local Woodcraft and the only chrome letter opener kit they stock is too fancy (looks excessively bling-ish which was all wrong for this friend).
Went home grumpy and frustrated that I'd miss the chance to promptly fulfill the friend's request. Started poking around on a few of my favorite vendor sites to see who had the right chrome package...when I spotted a cool pink & black blank...wait a minute...I think I have some of those blanks on hand!
Dug through my receipts and sure enough, somewhere in my shop I allegedly have five of those (maybe 4 as I probably already used at least one and only ordered 5 way back when).
Ah, that should go well with the dark gun metal kit!
Started laying out the parts and noticed the default tube size that comes with the kit was pretty short. This friend is older and a more generous handle would probably be much more comfortable and a bit easier to use...fortunately, I also had a stash of replacement tubes in 10inch lengths!
I drilled the blank to the full depth of the flutes on my Colt parabolic 7mm bit (the bit is nearly six inches long and the flutes are a little short of 5" long). Oh yeah, this will make a proper sized handle!
I didn't like the metal plug for the top of the letter opener kit so I pulled out "The Grabber" mandrel I'd purchased a while back from Penn State. I'd used it only once before and really like the results it allows (but hadn't made anything that would work with it in a while). Ironically, that prior project also used a pink blank.
Three views of the result of all this are are shown in the enclosed photo. The handle material was one of Woodturningz's "Pink Zebra" blanks from their "Genesis' line. The letter opener kit is also from Woodturningz. Since I had to rush to get it handed off in time, I only paused long enough to grab a couple quick phone photos.
I'm hoping she'll be as pleased with this as she has been with the Pink Coral Tru Stone seam ripper...after the initial shock wears off as the Pink Zebra blank has a lot more figure going on!
