Beautiful PITH from Charlie (jehster1)

[mbroberg]

I was paired with Charlie Frend (@Jehster1) for the 2020 PITH. Charlie Is fairly new to pen turning, this was the 35th pen he turned and his 1st attempt at segmenting. Actually, he told me it was his 2nd and 1/2 attempt as his 1st attempt was a collection of "learning opportunities" and then he had to rework the cap on his final product. I think it looks great!

The pen is made with figured walnut, birdseye maple, bloodwood, and nickel silver rings. The kit is a Celticus Jr. He didn't talk about the finish, but I can tell you that it is smooth, even and shiny! He pointed out one small imperfection to me that, unless he wants to talk about, it will remain our secret.

Charlie is a Union Crew Steward at Capital One Arena. He's one of the guys that turn a Hockey Rink into a Concert Stage and then into a Basketball Court within hours! Along with his PITH, he sent an official Washington Capital Practice Puck, 2 pens he stole from work and 3 awesome blanks Curly KOA, Gator Mardi Gras and an Aluminum Honey Comb Blank.

It's been a while since I participated in a PITH. I'll have to do this more often. Thanks, Charlie, Good Job!

 

[Timber Ripper]

Great job Charlie!

 

[magpens]

WOW !! . That pen is a beauty !!!!

 

[mark james]

Excellent pen Charlie. Nice score Mike!

 

[Jehster1]

Thanks for the kind words Mike! The finish is 5 coats of thin GluBoost to seal everything, Zona through the grits to smooth, then 6 coats of thin and 6 coats of Medium GluBoost, Zona again then the 3 step buffing wheel.

I'll gladly talk about the imperfection which was an interesting one. It took me about a day to try and figure out how it happened as it was not a blowout and only appeared as the pen was turned to its final size. The imperfection was on the inside of the blank between the wood and the tube.

My theory is as follows:

Originally, the cap was supposed to match the body with scallops and stripes but my bit drifted when drilling and ended up noticeably off-center on one end which would have lead to bad proportions in the final turning and I decided to make a new cap with a simple 45 split.

After making the cap, it looked a little plain so I added a Bloodwood cap to the end and an accent ring. For continuity purposes, I also decided to add the same to the pen body. The body section was already drilled but not tubed so I cut the appropriate length off the body and epoxied the accent piece and Bloodwood on to the end. I assume that when I re-drilled the body and new end section, a small chip must have come away on the inside where the old body met the new section and then it got filled with epoxy when I inserted the tube. That's the only way I can think of to have gotten an epoxy "bubble" on the inside of the wood that showed itself during turning.

Definitely a head-scratcher when I first saw it lol.

Mike was kind enough to shoot around it but I'm fine if he'd like to show a picture of it as well.

I thought about how to fix it but couldn't come up with any good ideas without starting over and it was already the end of the month and I was about to head into back to back concerts which are 20 hour days for me so it became a "character attribute" of the pen.