African Blackwood with Turquoise inlay

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duderubble

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May 9, 2020
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133
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Missouri
First inlay pen. Kit is a Concava. I didn't concave it but used the depth for inlay. I love this kit. Even though it's basically a souped up slimline there is lots of meat and the hardware is beautiful, nice and heavy. Beautifully plated.

I think I'll do a cocobolo with mother of pearl next. I've got an idea for that.
 

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Very nice looking pen. I just ordered a bunch of crushed Opal while it was on sale and want to try the same technique. Did you put a small "groove" in the blank, fill it with your glue and turquoise then sand it smooth? Just asking as I have no idea how I'm going to do my in-letting. Thanks for sharing.
 

mark james

IAP Collection, Curator
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Sep 6, 2012
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Medina, Ohio
Very nice looking pen. I just ordered a bunch of crushed Opal while it was on sale and want to try the same technique. Did you put a small "groove" in the blank, fill it with your glue and turquoise then sand it smooth? Just asking as I have no idea how I'm going to do my in-letting. Thanks for sharing.

I don't mean to hijack the OP, but I'll offer some thoughts.

When I do the inlays with bought material (Turquoise in my case), I use several sieves with different size openings to get different size material (e.g., small, medium, large). I used several cheap kitchen strainers from a Dollar Store. After separating the material by size, it was much easier to do the inlay (a small slot with my parting tool, or in the case of this picture - natural inclusions in a Jarrah Blank.), Large first, medium, small, apply CA. It did fine for me, but others may have better suggestions.

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duderubble

Member
Joined
May 9, 2020
Messages
133
Location
Missouri
Very nice looking pen. I just ordered a bunch of crushed Opal while it was on sale and want to try the same technique. Did you put a small "groove" in the blank, fill it with your glue and turquoise then sand it smooth? Just asking as I have no idea how I'm going to do my in-letting. Thanks for sharing.
I turned it to size, then cut a groove about 1/8" deep. I had to lightly sand the edges because they fuzzed up. Then I gave the whole thing a coat of thin CA. I mixed two part epoxy and mixed in the turquoise and loaded it into the groove up above the finished level. Let set and then sanded down until it was all level. Sanding took forever but you can't use tools on it.
 
Joined
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Guy and Mark, thanks for sharing. I was thinking along the same lines as you both but wanted to make sure my thinking was in line. The Opal won't be here until next week so once I figure out what I want to do with a pen I'll post it here. Thanks again for the info.
 
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