JimGo
Member
I posted something the other night in which I mentioned that I would have a potential winner for the "ugliest pen" contest. Well, that's what I THOUGHT it would be as I took everything off the lathe. Turns out, it's actually one of my favorites now!
It started off as some kind of fruit wood, but the other half of the blank exploded as I got close to the bushing size. So, I happened to have a piece of "spalted hardwood dowel" that had a tube already glued into it, so I turned that down to match. The woods didn't match color wise at all, so I decided to test out my new colored Sharpies. I sanded, including the gauntlet of MM, then rubbed the Sharpies all over the wood. At first, the red looked pretty good, but I couldn't get good coverage on the blue (the fruit wood). Not sure why that was. But the pen was already starting to take up some time, so I decided to put some thin CA on as a sealer for the marker ink. The CA caused the blue to run some, which was somewhat surprising. Didn't have as much of a problem with the red. 2nd coat of CA wasn't as bad. Then I tried to add Shellawax to the outside, and that's where things got interesting. As I heated the Shellawax (i.e. applied friction), it started to peel off some of the coloring! I got this thick, waxy substance that was either red or blue, depending on the piece I was waxing. I thought about trying to re-apply the colors, but decided instead to try to burn off as much as I could, in an effort to get a more subtle coloring. Then I decided that, since I had some small pieces of the dowel around, I would try a custom CB. Wound up drilling it and gluing a tube in there, but the tube was shorter than the wood, so I had to "guesstimate" the CB size. Then turned it down between bushings, because I didn't want the red or blue to bleed onto it. Sand, CA/BLO on the CB, then put everything in my drying rack for 2 days.
I took it down today and was dreading putting it together. Thought for SURE it would be an ugly pen winner. But, none the less, I put some TSW on it, then put everything together. That's when it hit me, WOW, I REALLY like this pen! The spalted wood CB came out with a slightly antique white color that really makes the whole pen look antique (except for the nice shiny gold plating).
So, what are YOUR comments on the pen?
(Sorry 'bout the size, but I wanted to get a decent close-up)
It started off as some kind of fruit wood, but the other half of the blank exploded as I got close to the bushing size. So, I happened to have a piece of "spalted hardwood dowel" that had a tube already glued into it, so I turned that down to match. The woods didn't match color wise at all, so I decided to test out my new colored Sharpies. I sanded, including the gauntlet of MM, then rubbed the Sharpies all over the wood. At first, the red looked pretty good, but I couldn't get good coverage on the blue (the fruit wood). Not sure why that was. But the pen was already starting to take up some time, so I decided to put some thin CA on as a sealer for the marker ink. The CA caused the blue to run some, which was somewhat surprising. Didn't have as much of a problem with the red. 2nd coat of CA wasn't as bad. Then I tried to add Shellawax to the outside, and that's where things got interesting. As I heated the Shellawax (i.e. applied friction), it started to peel off some of the coloring! I got this thick, waxy substance that was either red or blue, depending on the piece I was waxing. I thought about trying to re-apply the colors, but decided instead to try to burn off as much as I could, in an effort to get a more subtle coloring. Then I decided that, since I had some small pieces of the dowel around, I would try a custom CB. Wound up drilling it and gluing a tube in there, but the tube was shorter than the wood, so I had to "guesstimate" the CB size. Then turned it down between bushings, because I didn't want the red or blue to bleed onto it. Sand, CA/BLO on the CB, then put everything in my drying rack for 2 days.
I took it down today and was dreading putting it together. Thought for SURE it would be an ugly pen winner. But, none the less, I put some TSW on it, then put everything together. That's when it hit me, WOW, I REALLY like this pen! The spalted wood CB came out with a slightly antique white color that really makes the whole pen look antique (except for the nice shiny gold plating).
So, what are YOUR comments on the pen?
(Sorry 'bout the size, but I wanted to get a decent close-up)
] Especially Tim's entry [}