Designer done in Koa and Milo

[wolf creek knives]

This by far is my most favorite pen to make. Not really hard to make but for some reason every time I see one it takes me back to the 60/70's. I even have one I bought at an antique store in Idaho several years back.
What we have here is a Designer Series pen from PSI done in Koa with an inlay of Milo. The story behind the wood is interesting. My customer in Hawaii buys cut offs from a mill that would normally throw these pieces of wood away. From what he sends me I make all of his bottle stoppers, bottle openers, comfort pens and about 6 other items. This pen came from a piece that was about 8" long and maybe 5" wide with the upper 1/3 being segmented. I used the bottom piece for his last order and salvaged what I could of the upper segmented piece. The last picture is what was left over which, I thought, was too small to make anything with. But I found that I could possibly get one pen out of it. This is that pen. The small pieces on the last picture were too small to do anything with but I haven't got the heart to throw it out (less than 1/2").
This is Gun Metal finish on the pen components. The segmented piece of wood was going to be paddles for a boat displayed in a resort lobby.
Thanks for looking.

 

[Jim15]

Great work.

 

[GaryMGg]

This by far is my most favorite pen to make.…small pieces on the last picture were too small to do anything with but I haven't got the heart to throw it out (less than 1/2").

View attachment 393080

Nice work.
If you're saying each of those 4 are 1/2" X 1/2", then with accurate center drilling, you can make the typical slimline.

 

[wolf creek knives]

Nice work.
If you're saying each of those 4 are 1/2" X 1/2", then with accurate center drilling, you can make the typical slimline.

Thanks Gary. I could probably do that but to be very honest I don't turn slim lines. I've never had good luck doing slim lines, even with spot on center drilling, so I don't try. If you're interested maybe I could send these cut offs to you and you could enjoy them (free of charge). Let me know and let's see what we can do.

 

[TDahl]

Very nice.

 

[GaryMGg]

Tom
That's a generous offer; maybe someone who doesn't do their own segmentation and is low on blanks can use them.
I have hundreds of blanks.

 

[BHuij]

Your pens look lovely! I have always struggled with the PSI Designer kit. In theory it's a nice step up from the slimline. In practice, even using calipers, I seem to consistently struggle to get the profile of the pen to match the top finial and the diameters to match up with the hardware. I seem to have better luck just turning "Don Line" pens from slimline kits.