These are my first two kitless pens. The blue was the first. I wet sanded from 400 to 1200 then and polished with micromesh to 12000 and then plastic polish. I used a buffing wheel and blue plastic compound on the ends where there are threads. I did the same for the purple but also used Zona paper on the inside using long tweezers to hold it. The inside is not a perfect polish inside, but it definitely makes to way more transparent. These pens were made using two blanks each as that's what I had available.
I used the BG Art Forms basic kit for making kitless pens. It seems to be a good starting point. (I can't afford triple start taps and dies, so the single start it comes with were fine.) The only issue I had was the kit came with two cap mandrels and no body mandrel so making the bodies was a bit more of an adventure. (I've emailed him twice, waiting for a reply.) I think the bodies came out pretty good.
Most of the turning was with my skew (both to cut and scrape.) I did try carbide on the blue pen, but it was not a pleasant experience so went back to the skew.
I used the BG Art Forms basic kit for making kitless pens. It seems to be a good starting point. (I can't afford triple start taps and dies, so the single start it comes with were fine.) The only issue I had was the kit came with two cap mandrels and no body mandrel so making the bodies was a bit more of an adventure. (I've emailed him twice, waiting for a reply.) I think the bodies came out pretty good.
Most of the turning was with my skew (both to cut and scrape.) I did try carbide on the blue pen, but it was not a pleasant experience so went back to the skew.
