S
spiritwoodturner
Guest
Have you ever worked on a pen project where you felt like you were holding your breath from the moment you cut the blank in half until the last part was pressed? Wow, I sure did on this one. I wrecked a few by sanding through the Alabaster faster than the surrounding PR. I should have known better, and tried as light a touch as possible, but this stuff is 1 hardness scale harder than talc, and man, it's easy to go through it.
I started with large chunks of Utah Raspberry Alabaster that I got from stonesculpturessupplies.com . I whacked them with a 2 lb. hand sledge until small enough to fit in my mold. Then mixed some violet PR with Pearl X in it. Drilled like a dream, epoxied fine, cut OK (if you don't mind powdered stone all over the place-good thanks for good dust collection) and then the trick that Richard at Randbcrafts gave me was to CA the whole thing in stages to provide a consistent sanding surface. It worked perfect, thank you Richard!!!
Now, I think I'm going to drill into whoever buys it that it's a desk pen ONLY, now and forever more! If this dude hits the floor a dust pan will be needed to get it all back. It has to be the most fragile pen I'll ever make, but it sure turned out pretty. Wish I would have put it on a Statesman, but hey, I had a bunch of Retro Jr's around, so there it is.
Comments and Critiques welcome!!!
Dale
I started with large chunks of Utah Raspberry Alabaster that I got from stonesculpturessupplies.com . I whacked them with a 2 lb. hand sledge until small enough to fit in my mold. Then mixed some violet PR with Pearl X in it. Drilled like a dream, epoxied fine, cut OK (if you don't mind powdered stone all over the place-good thanks for good dust collection) and then the trick that Richard at Randbcrafts gave me was to CA the whole thing in stages to provide a consistent sanding surface. It worked perfect, thank you Richard!!!
Now, I think I'm going to drill into whoever buys it that it's a desk pen ONLY, now and forever more! If this dude hits the floor a dust pan will be needed to get it all back. It has to be the most fragile pen I'll ever make, but it sure turned out pretty. Wish I would have put it on a Statesman, but hey, I had a bunch of Retro Jr's around, so there it is.
Comments and Critiques welcome!!!
Dale