Another nut from the tree

[plantman]

This pen is a Rockler Gold Spitit. It was made to reppresent the the tree of life in an abstract form. The gold base being Mother Earth, rich and solid. The Walnut trunk shows the strength it takes to hold up the bounty that comes from Nature. The segmented walnut shell and cast upper barrel bears the fruits and leaves of the world. And the final is the crowning jewel of the tree. If you can relate to all that, I have snow to sell in the winter also. The barrels are reversed in size and I only used the upper brass tube. The base was lenghtened and drilled to fit the fittings with no tube inserted. Upper barrel is made from segmented walnut shellss glued on a center core and cast in PR with blue and silver powders added. Final is turned Walnut. Pen was sanded to 900 and finished with 8 coats of thick CA, resanded to 1200 and polished with One-Step Polish. Jim S

 

[turncrazy43]

Very nice pen Jim. It really looks great.
______________________________________
Everyday I'm vertical is a great day

 

[Trux]

Now that's cool!

 

[Band Saw Box]

Wow that is a really cool pen.

 

[stonepecker]

I like it.

You got a great casting there.

 

[Dale Lynch]

Neat idea.

 

[OZturner]

You had me going there for a minute, Jim.
Sorry, but I don't want to Buy any Snow in the Winter.
I love the Design and Construction of the Pen.
From the Walnut and Gold Cap, to the Cast Blank of segmented Walnut Shell, to the turned Walnut Finial, It is very Clever and Unique.
Great fit and Finish.
Brian.

 

[plantman]

Thanks everyone for the looks and replys. Jim S

 

[mark james]

Great story line! An even better pen!

 

[yaroslaw]

Look is really unique and artistic, and I still could not understand how you've put walnut shells to achieve that effect

 

[kruzzer]

A lot of creativity went into that pen.. great job

 

[BJohn]

Great Job 'It's a keeper'

 

[plantman]

Look is really unique and artistic, and I still could not understand how you've put walnut shells to achieve that effect

Uaroslaw; Thanks for the nice comments !! Hope you and your's are well in your troubled homeland. As for the applying of the walnut shells. Look up my thread "Nuts to You All" 6/8/2014, it shows another pen I have done this way and gives a brief explanation of how to achieve the results seen there. If you have any questions just ask and I will be happy to answer them. Be safe and well !!! Jim S

 

[yaroslaw]

Look is really unique and artistic, and I still could not understand how you've put walnut shells to achieve that effect

Uaroslaw; Thanks for the nice comments !! Hope you and your's are well in your troubled homeland. As for the applying of the walnut shells. Look up my thread "Nuts to You All" 6/8/2014, it shows another pen I have done this way and gives a brief explanation of how to achieve the results seen there. If you have any questions just ask and I will be happy to answer them. Be safe and well !!! Jim S

Thanks, Jim!
Still haven't figured out some details. For example, a safe way of slicing walnut shells at bandsaw? Do you slice them lengthwise (parallel to split) or in perpendicular dimension?
Oh, and do you take out nuts out of shells?

Picture of "blank" before casting would be very helpful

I know guys here making jewelery and boxes out of Chineese walnut (Manchjuri? could not remember exact name), it is more decorative, but they slice them with hand jewelery saw, which is very exhaustive, as it is specifically hard.

 

[plantman]

Look is really unique and artistic, and I still could not understand how you've put walnut shells to achieve that effect

Uaroslaw; Thanks for the nice comments !! Hope you and your's are well in your troubled homeland. As for the applying of the walnut shells. Look up my thread "Nuts to You All" 6/8/2014, it shows another pen I have done this way and gives a brief explanation of how to achieve the results seen there. If you have any questions just ask and I will be happy to answer them. Be safe and well !!! Jim S

Thanks, Jim!
Still haven't figured out some details. For example, a safe way of slicing walnut shells at bandsaw? Do you slice them lengthwise (parallel to split) or in perpendicular dimension?
Oh, and do you take out nuts out of shells?

Picture of "blank" before casting would be very helpful

I know guys here making jewelery and boxes out of Chineese walnut (Manchjuri? could not remember exact name), it is more decorative, but they slice them with hand jewelery saw, which is very exhaustive, as it is specifically hard.

The walnuts still have the hard black outer protective covering on them. They are as they fell off the tree. As for slicing them, set your bandsaw fence at 1/8 inch and cut the nut lengthwise to obtain the best profiles. I make a small block of wood with an Walnut shaped indent to hold the nut when it gets close to the fingers. When you slice the nuts the meats will fall out. If you or anyone else is interested in how to make these blanks, I will try to put out a thread or tutorial on how this is done. Many other items could be inbedded in a blank with much more controll of patten than the random casting of objects using the centering method that I did. Be safe and well !!!! Jim S