Curly Koa Copper Cigar

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Bree

Bree

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Jun 19, 2009
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Here is some Curly Koa from Hawaii on a Copper Cigar kit. I got the Koa from EBay. I was actually unhappy with the Koa blanks as they were cut inconsistently sometimes split not cut at all. Some appear not to have any curl at all. But there are some good ones and I did get some nice extras and it is hard to get so whatcha gonna do?

The wood drills and turns very easily. It is nice to work with. I applied a small drop of tung oil on each side after sanding to 600 grit but before MM-12000 sanding. That helped pop the curl nicely without getting me into trouble with it clouding the CA. I put the tung oil (with driers added of course) finish under a pretty hot friction buff with a lint free cloth before MM sanding. That also helps accelerate drying.

This one got a triple buff then 4 coats of CA followed by a double buff and Ren Wax. I used my new photo tent and a camera flash. That tends to wash out some of the CA glassiness which is quite evident when you look at the pens. I think they photograph better this way. I would rather see the wood than glassiness in the PIC.

sCIMG5145.jpg
sCIMG5146.jpg
sCIMG5147.jpg

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
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The pens look great and it looks like your photos are going to be great too with your new setup. But as a critique the photos are too large. I hate it when I have to scroll a page to see the entire pen. It does show more detail and we all get to the point where we are now trying to improve our photo tecniques. Seeing a glare line down a side of the pen is not all that pleasing though some may think so but it is a matter of taste. ( anyone can do that if you hang a light right above your pen) I would rather see the color of the wood or acrylic and also be in focus. I think your photos do that so I say keep this set up but make the photos abit smaller. That is my 2¢ for the day.
 
Great looking pen..........and personally I don't mind the large size of the pics.

I'd much rather see a pen photographed this way than --as is sometimes seen-- some tiny little picture with bad lighting where you can barely tell what the wood is.

It provides what I like most; a very good close up view of the pen, even if I have to scroll around a bit to get it centered on the screen. The tent and flash were a good investment.
 
Good comments on the PIX. Maybe I will shrink them a little and do two side by side on the verticals. I had an action preprogrammed into Photoshop so it was easiest to just hit 600V! LOL!
:tongue::tongue::tongue:
 
Nice job!

Curly koa is a beautiful wood.

You might want to check with Chris, username "kalai," on the Big Island. He often has curly koa for sale, has good deals and is a genuinely nice person to deal with.

Best regards,
 
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