Hello from Delaware

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FlySmy

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2019
Messages
2
Location
Delaware
Hello all! I have lurked on this site off and on in my pen making endeavors and finally took the plunge and created an account. I took a pen making class through Rockler and was hooked. I have made a few pens since then and am finally trying to carve out time to practice this trade. I have been working on a 2nd hand harbor freight lathe that decided to overheat while trying to finish my last pen. This gave the perfect excuse to get the wife to let me upgrade and tomorrow I get to go pick up a very lightly used laguna revo 1216. Attached are a few of the pens and projects I have been working on lately. The oak virage pen on the whiskey barrel staves was a test to see the finished wood quality for a batch of pens for a local-ish whiskey distillery. Look forward to learning a ton from all the experience on this site.
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DrD

Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2019
Messages
1,104
Location
Columbus, Mississippi
Good to have you participating! Great looking pens; nice turning and finishing. Would be interested in knowing your finishing techniques if you don't mind sharing. Did you make your pen display from whisky barrel staves?
 

FlySmy

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2019
Messages
2
Location
Delaware
Good to have you participating! Great looking pens; nice turning and finishing. Would be interested in knowing your finishing techniques if you don't mind sharing. Did you make your pen display from whisky barrel staves?

DrD, thanks! I had been sanding 150-600 grit and then 2-3 coats medium CA but it was super ghetto as I had used very little out of a bottle, it got knocked over and the lid was glued on so I would use some disposable brushes that I had for small epoxy work to coat the pen. I finally broke down and bought a new bottle of medium as well as a bottle of thick and thin, and now realize my medium was super thick because of exposure and was actually thicker than the thick šŸ˜‚. On the pen in the last picture I adapted a technique that I think I found in a video on here using thin CA and I think it's the best finish yet. All my others have a few white blemishes between the CA layers.

With my most recent pen this was my process:
1. Sand 150-600 grit.
2. Blow dust out of the grain using compressor.
3. Good wipe down with denatured alcohol.
4. 6 coats of thin CA applied with a paper towel (6 coats simply because I can divide one of the half sheets size paper towels into sixths and still work with it)
5. Knock down high points on finish wet "sanding" with my coarsest micro mesh (1500 I believe)
6. 6 more coats of thin CA.
7. Wet "sand" with micro mesh working from 1500-12000
8. Polish with some gloss finish CA polish.

Going that route it is probably the fastest I have finished a pen because I didn't end up with flaws that I decided I didn't like and didn't have to sand/turn all the CA off and start over.

As far as the pen stand, it is 2 cutoffs from a whiskey stave, actually from the same barrel that the pen is made from. They are just set on top of each other right now but I'm playing around with some ideas on making a permanent pen stand from some staves since I have a number of pens that the distillery has requested.

John
 
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