About a month ago, Robutacion posted an offer which I had to accept.
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f217/i-would-like-make-you-offer-151331/
He offered a few free pen blanks to each of 10 members, including one for each member that he wanted made into a pen within 30 days. . This is day 29, I think, so here is my pen.
This blank is one of the category of Resifill blanks (I believe) that George makes and sells. . This style is half resin and half crushed fiber from a tropical tree. . By the luck of the draw, I got a blank with whitish swirled resin ... very nice indeed.
The blank started off about 3.83" long and close to 7/8" square cross-section. . The blank ends were pretty square, but I trued them up and added a slice of aluminum (or aluminium, as George would have it) to each end. . The aluminum is 0.063" thick making the overall blank up to about 4.00" long, which is what I needed for the kit I chose to use.
The kit is a Berea Long Boy click pen in gunmetal.
Turning the blank was straightforward on my metal-working lathe using a 11 mm round carbide cutting tool, except for one piece of Al coming off a couple of times due, probably, to heat loosening the glue (epoxy, then CA).
To keep it simple and elegant, I decided to make a straight-sided single barrel pen. . Both supplied brass tubes were used with the accompanying coupler. . The coupler merely joins the two tubes and, on the exterior is designed to look like a center band. . However, I turned the center portion of the coupler down to the same diameter as the brass tubes so that there is no center band. . I could just have used a 4" long piece of 10 mm tube.
So, here we are, the finished pen, with just 2 layers of thin CA mainly to bring up the color of the fibrous material. . I sanded the whole blank from 240 to 2000 grit to remove the irregularities of the CA surface, and then polished in my usual way (Mequiar's brownish coarse cut polish, Novus 3, Novus 2, and, finally, Meguiar's greenish Plastix polish).
I did not paint the inside of the barrel, even though the material ends up only about 0.050" thick, because I did not want a stark white barrel. . Leaving it unpainted allows the brass to show through and gives the blank a golden hue, complementing the dark brown of the CA'ed fibrous portion.
I hope you like it, George ! . C and C welcome from all. . And, George, tell me if you want me to send the photos by email to you, to use as you wish. . I have reduced the pixel count in these photos. I can send you these reduced ones which are about 200 Kp, or I could send you the originals (5 Mp each). . George, thank you very much for this opportunity ! . I like what I see !
The first pic is the finished blank before adding the kit hardware.
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f217/i-would-like-make-you-offer-151331/
He offered a few free pen blanks to each of 10 members, including one for each member that he wanted made into a pen within 30 days. . This is day 29, I think, so here is my pen.
This blank is one of the category of Resifill blanks (I believe) that George makes and sells. . This style is half resin and half crushed fiber from a tropical tree. . By the luck of the draw, I got a blank with whitish swirled resin ... very nice indeed.
The blank started off about 3.83" long and close to 7/8" square cross-section. . The blank ends were pretty square, but I trued them up and added a slice of aluminum (or aluminium, as George would have it) to each end. . The aluminum is 0.063" thick making the overall blank up to about 4.00" long, which is what I needed for the kit I chose to use.
The kit is a Berea Long Boy click pen in gunmetal.
Turning the blank was straightforward on my metal-working lathe using a 11 mm round carbide cutting tool, except for one piece of Al coming off a couple of times due, probably, to heat loosening the glue (epoxy, then CA).
To keep it simple and elegant, I decided to make a straight-sided single barrel pen. . Both supplied brass tubes were used with the accompanying coupler. . The coupler merely joins the two tubes and, on the exterior is designed to look like a center band. . However, I turned the center portion of the coupler down to the same diameter as the brass tubes so that there is no center band. . I could just have used a 4" long piece of 10 mm tube.
So, here we are, the finished pen, with just 2 layers of thin CA mainly to bring up the color of the fibrous material. . I sanded the whole blank from 240 to 2000 grit to remove the irregularities of the CA surface, and then polished in my usual way (Mequiar's brownish coarse cut polish, Novus 3, Novus 2, and, finally, Meguiar's greenish Plastix polish).
I did not paint the inside of the barrel, even though the material ends up only about 0.050" thick, because I did not want a stark white barrel. . Leaving it unpainted allows the brass to show through and gives the blank a golden hue, complementing the dark brown of the CA'ed fibrous portion.
I hope you like it, George ! . C and C welcome from all. . And, George, tell me if you want me to send the photos by email to you, to use as you wish. . I have reduced the pixel count in these photos. I can send you these reduced ones which are about 200 Kp, or I could send you the originals (5 Mp each). . George, thank you very much for this opportunity ! . I like what I see !
The first pic is the finished blank before adding the kit hardware.
:biggrin:
