African Blackwood and Vegetable Ivory Cigar Pen

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I got this blank from eBay. It was a little short, so I decided to add an "oops" band from some vegetable ivory (tagua) nuts. I think it came out pretty good! What do you think?



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Great idea and CB color. I was thinking of that and wondering if tagua nuts would do well for CBs. I keep processing this kind of thing in my mind while I work. Hopefully I will have a day off soon to do a little turning.

I want to experiment with different kinds, sizes, shapes and colors of CBs.
 
Lou, that's the color it wound up when I turned it. I think my skew was a little dull, and the nut got hot while I was turning it (and hence the brown color). I kind of liked it, though. The big spot on the left-hand side of the first pic, and the right-hand side of the last pic, was actually a void, which I tried to fill with some of the nut's shavings; I'm not sure why it turned so dark, but I think it may have been in part from the heat of the CA as it cured.
 
Very nice job Jim... that tagua is nice to play with.. I have bunch of tagua slices that I use to make scroll saw pendants... I got my slices here http://www.suewalters.com/PyroShop.html#4 they will make nice segmented inserts for pens when I get around to it.. she also sells a great little booklet on tagua tips.. that includes how to color them and antique them...
 
Does the Tagua take the finish too? Is it oily? ...and... did you put a tube in the middle of the nut as well? Those would make nice centerbands! (I'm running out of streamline kits!)

Nice work... real neat wood, too!
 
Thanks for all the positive comments!

Michael, I turned and sanded the Tagua just like it was part of the wood, so yes, it takes the finish pretty well. I'm not sure how oily it is; I can never really judge this in wood, either. I did put a tube in the middle of this one, since the nut is actually fairly brittle.

Lynn, if I remember, I'll take a pic of a nut and post it tonight.
 
Jim, great looking pen. I like how the nut turned out, almost like marble with the brown swirls. Much better than the plain ivory color, as it goes with the other colors in the pen more. I too have wondered what it is like to turn the nut. Guess I'll have to try now, based upon what you have shown is possible! Thanks...
 
Tom, have you ever tried getting one of the nuts from the source you mentioned? I see a price, but I can't figure out if that is per nut, or for some quantity of them, and what the size is per nut.
 
For those who were interested, here are some pics of the Tagua nuts. For reference, the hole in the nut is from a 10mm drill bit.



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I got them off eBay from these folks:
http://stores.ebay.com/TROPIWORLD

I got 100 of 'em for a great price, though they are all approximately 3/4" in diameter, which means there's some waste. It also took them FOREVER to ship the nuts, but they did get here eventually.
 
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