Independence recovered?

[sorcerertd]

So, this isn't really a great "show off" pen, but I'm at least happy with the overall fit and finish. The kit is an Independence in antique silver from Turner's Warehouse. The blank is maple burl with alumilite resin. I may still repurpose the kit to new barrels, but it was a good learning experience. It would have been really nice had the resin colors matched up as intended. So what happened?

Due to the combination of an impatient attitude paired with recently sharpened tools, I took way too much material off the cap blank. Wow that gouge cut fast! Anyway, I was able to recover by building this back up with CA (thanks again to those that helped with my questions about that), but am not happy with the end result..

So this brings some thoughts up that I'll run by you here. This would have happened, albeit to a lesser extent, just due to the fact that the cap tube is 2mm thicker than the barrel anyway unless I left it fatter than I would like. Of course, if I could have predicted what happened (and who would anticipate that?), the upper blank probably would have been painted a medium to dark blue instead of white. I wonder if, under even normal circumstances where you don't turn down past the bushings on the barrel, it might not be a bad idea to use some slightly darker paint on the cap tube for Jr. kits?

 

[jrista]

Beautiful, beautiful pen, IMO.

I remember your thread about turning the blank down too much....your repair with the CA is really good. I cannot tell the blank was turned down too much, at least given the lighting and angles here.

As for your other question, I'm not that experienced of a pen maker, and only recently started really getting into higher quality kits like this one (not even two months, honestly), and only just started painting my tubes about a month ago. That said, I think the cap looks excellent as it is here. I kind of like the lighter/darker contrast between the cap and the pen.

 

[egnald]

Greetings from Nebraska. I think the pen turned out just great!

As far as painting colors go, Mark Dreyer did an excellent video that shows the dramatic differences in how a pen will look depending on light or dark paint colors. Here is the link to his video:

I also recall someone who had painted a dowel with different colors of paint to use as a test stick. After drilling his blanks but before gluing in the tubes, he would turn them to round and then insert the test stick to determine what color he would use to paint the inside of the blank and/or tube before gluing it in.

Regards,
Dave

 

[sorcerertd]

Mark Dreyer did an excellent video

Indeed. He's done lots of excellent videos benefiting the IAP community (and then some). Thanks for reminding me.

I also recall someone who had painted a dowel with different colors of paint to use as a test stick. After drilling his blanks but before gluing in the tubes, he would turn them to round and then insert the test stick to determine what color he would use to paint the inside of the blank and/or tube before gluing it in.

I remember this, too. Great idea and implementation. I guess you'd have to do it for different thicknesses of resin/acrylic to get the right match with something like this. Maybe I can just put a slightly darker tint in the paint before I coat the blank with the thicker tube. I have a few more of these so I'll test that.