Bourbon Stave Rollerball

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jalbert

jalbert

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May 17, 2015
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Louisville, KY
I just finished up a kitless rollerball pen as a birthday present for one of my good friends. He is a serious bourbon connoisseur, so I used a blank cut from a Buffalo Trace bourbon barrel, ebonite, and bronze. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I wasn't sure how to deal with the wood, since any kind of finish was going to mask or diminish the bourbon scent. In the end I just went ahead and CA glued it. The blank came with a certificate of authenticity, so at least my friend will know the blank is legitimate ;) I may make him a box for it that is lined with a raw bourbon stave, so I feel that is a good way to at least have some bourbon scent present. Thanks for looking!
-John

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Hi John - Retaining the "natural" scent of the wood with a finish is tough. I can't think of a finish that wouldn't either block or overwhelm the wood. What I might have considered was to do an insert on the cap finial of the raw wood with no finish. I don't know if that would be a big enough piece to preserve the scent.

You could suggest that he dip the cap in bourbon before each use....:biggrin:

Ed
 
Thanks! The CA glue did completely mask the bourbon. I expected it would, but I would rather the pen look completely finished from an aesthetic point of view. This was why I had the idea of making a complementary box for the pen that had some raw wood from the stave in it.

Ed-
Having an insert made of the raw wood is a good idea. Should have thought of that ;)
 
Thank you! The wood is a little plain, and not what I would choose for me personally, but I guess the story behind it was more important than what it looked like!
 
Great job on the pen, John.
Sometimes with special fragrant blanks like that I'll turn a shape on the cutoff, leave it raw, add a rare earth magnet and include it. I first did that with a coffee bean blank I did for a coffee scoop (gift for my daughter). She still goes to the fridge to smell that magnet every so often.
 
Man! I absolutely love this pen. The attention to details like the bands and nose cone really make it stand out among the kitless roller balls I've seen (and made). Nice!
 
Thanks Charlie! I usually make fountain pens, so figuring out how to approach the grip section was probably one of the biggest challenges for me. The nose definitely needed to act as a transition between the grip and the point of the ink refill, which is something I never have to worry about when making fountain pens.
 
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