A retirement pen in koa.

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mredburn

IAP Activities Manager
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Fort Myers FL
My wife came to me about 3 weeks ago ona wednesday evening, and one of her co workers that she really works well with and depends on is retiring, He is retiring next Friday and do I have a pen we could give him? Uhmmm not really but I have a few Sierra style kits I could wip something up. " No, they dont look right." Well I have a couple of the Stainless kit versions from Lazerline how about one of them. "Yes that would do but you dont have enough time" So I took a resin blank that was laying around and fixed her right up.
Except, he needed to stay on a couple more weeks to clean up all the details at work, and could I make him something out of silver instead, and mayber wood instead of resin.
OK, so we look at some styles and she picks out a euro type pen style.
I show her some Koa, yup thats a good one. I had some parts and pieces that would make a 8mm tube euro laying around from 10 years ago I never used that had Lab opal in them. All that was missing was a clip so I dug one up and cut the opal to fit it. We need the pen Friday the 14th.
So yesterday,(Wednesday) I turn the blank round, cut it to length, drill the holes, and glue in the tubes. I will finish the blanks and assemble it today and it will be ready for the "retirement" send off Friday afternoon.
Except ............... I get a text from her at 8am, they have decided that they will do the retirement party today not tomorrow on Friday.
Crap!. Drop everything and get started.
Anyway, pen is done, the recipient doesnt like plastic feel on wood so I used a friction polish from DRs Woodshop. IIt really darkened the wood. Its hard to see the chatoyancy in my pictures which were just before I went out the door to deliver it but its there.
Enjoy.
The blank.
koa blank.jpg


The pen bodies turned.
koa blanks.jpg


The pen
koa pen 4.jpg

koa pen 2.jpg


one more
koa pen .jpg

Oh and the first pen, yeah it went to one of her Bosses who really thought it was cool. I didnt get to get a picture of that one.
 
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bsshog40

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Oct 2, 2018
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That's nice Michael! I have one Koa blank that Tom (wolfcreekknives) gave me. I need to turn that one day but I wanna wait for the right pen kit.
 

mredburn

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Its not a commercial kit John. I made the hardware in silver back in 2010 after I first joined IAP. I knew a guy through the jewelry industry that designed and made silver and opal jewelry. I sent a bunch of parts to his company in Tiawan that inlayed the opal for me, along with others that they inlayed with turqoise. Unfortunately they seperated the parts from complete pen sets and I ended up with a lot of parts without being able to make whole pens. I later found a source for the opal but the parts have been just sitting on a shelf. I finally got around to making myself start using them.
 

jttheclockman

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Its not a commercial kit John. I made the hardware in silver back in 2010 after I first joined IAP. I knew a guy through the jewelry industry that designed and made silver and opal jewelry. I sent a bunch of parts to his company in Tiawan that inlayed the opal for me, along with others that they inlayed with turqoise. Unfortunately they seperated the parts from complete pen sets and I ended up with a lot of parts without being able to make whole pens. I later found a source for the opal but the parts have been just sitting on a shelf. I finally got around to making myself start using them.
Well it really works well together. Nice job.
 

mark james

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Sep 6, 2012
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Medina, Ohio
I've admired your inlay finials, clips, center bands and tips for as long as I have been an IAP member. This pen... Another masterpiece.

BTW, I've tried to revisit the Pen Makers' Guild Gallery and it does not appear anymore? Has the website/gallery/articles been discontinued? If so, that is a shame as there were many articles that I frequently read, as well as the gallery itself.

Impressive artistry Mike.
 

mredburn

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I will contact my friend and see what is happeining. I suspect that the website was not renewed after Rich passed away.
 

magpens

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Feb 2, 2011
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Location
Canada
Very beautiful pen, Mike ... I love those opals with the silver !!

Without doubt, the recipient will also !

Congratulations on a job well done !!! .... and with "post haste" !!
 
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