jtate
Member
Yea! My PITH pen to James got there!
It's flame box elder that I harvested almost a year ago from an access road where a crew was erecting a bill board. I stopped to ask them if I could scavenge and I saw this red streak on a broken branch and then noted red chain-saw saw dust. I thought "Huh?" This was last December and it was cold as could be. I had just recevied my lathe that month with money my mother had given me for my birthday. I had turned a few sticks just to see if, indeed, I did like wood-turning but I'd never made anything. I thought, this is pretty, I must take this home. I was quite a sight out there in the snow and mud with my handsaw, cutting off chunks of this wood.
I messed up a bunch of the wood because, like I said, this was my first wood-turning experience. Somebody finally told me that this is really nice wood and I should let it sit and dry awhile and practice on lumber mill scrap till I developed some skills. I did that for several months and have now come back to the box elder.
I love the grain and the color in this so I wanted to maximize this by cutting it on the diagonal. This was not easy. SHARP tools and very thin cutting. This was a great big ol' chunk of wood and that was good because it took a while before I got the technique down so that there was not so much tear-out. Turning something cut on the diagonal lends itself to tear-out. This I now know.
So it's a PKMONT kit. I don't know the real name for it but that's the PSI code.
The red accent ring is a wonderful acrylic that I got from Andes Lambrou. Y'all may not know who he is but I can tell you he's a really big deal in the fountain pen world. He saw some of my fountain pen customizations and contacted me about whether I'd like to use some of this material. I jumped all over it and bought several rods. It wasn't cheap and I ain't sharing with nobody. Limited supplies and all that. It's got some real nice sparkles in it as kind of a hidden treat. Sometimes they'll show as you handle this pen but they're really apparent with a loupe.
Yep, it's dipped. and dipped. and dipped. And cleaned off with alcohoil because I messed it up and dipped and dipped and dipped again. I micromeshed between each dipping and I think that helped. I gather that the lacquer coats should be very thin in order to get the most reflectivity to them. Like I mentioned above, this was a bucking bronco of a learning curve! But loads of fun.
Glad you like it. The transmission felt a little loose to me. I hope that's just me and that the point stays extended for you with no trouble. If not, send it back to me and I'll see if I can disassemble it and put a new transmission in it.
This has been fun!
It's flame box elder that I harvested almost a year ago from an access road where a crew was erecting a bill board. I stopped to ask them if I could scavenge and I saw this red streak on a broken branch and then noted red chain-saw saw dust. I thought "Huh?" This was last December and it was cold as could be. I had just recevied my lathe that month with money my mother had given me for my birthday. I had turned a few sticks just to see if, indeed, I did like wood-turning but I'd never made anything. I thought, this is pretty, I must take this home. I was quite a sight out there in the snow and mud with my handsaw, cutting off chunks of this wood.
I messed up a bunch of the wood because, like I said, this was my first wood-turning experience. Somebody finally told me that this is really nice wood and I should let it sit and dry awhile and practice on lumber mill scrap till I developed some skills. I did that for several months and have now come back to the box elder.
I love the grain and the color in this so I wanted to maximize this by cutting it on the diagonal. This was not easy. SHARP tools and very thin cutting. This was a great big ol' chunk of wood and that was good because it took a while before I got the technique down so that there was not so much tear-out. Turning something cut on the diagonal lends itself to tear-out. This I now know.
So it's a PKMONT kit. I don't know the real name for it but that's the PSI code.
The red accent ring is a wonderful acrylic that I got from Andes Lambrou. Y'all may not know who he is but I can tell you he's a really big deal in the fountain pen world. He saw some of my fountain pen customizations and contacted me about whether I'd like to use some of this material. I jumped all over it and bought several rods. It wasn't cheap and I ain't sharing with nobody. Limited supplies and all that. It's got some real nice sparkles in it as kind of a hidden treat. Sometimes they'll show as you handle this pen but they're really apparent with a loupe.
Yep, it's dipped. and dipped. and dipped. And cleaned off with alcohoil because I messed it up and dipped and dipped and dipped again. I micromeshed between each dipping and I think that helped. I gather that the lacquer coats should be very thin in order to get the most reflectivity to them. Like I mentioned above, this was a bucking bronco of a learning curve! But loads of fun.
Glad you like it. The transmission felt a little loose to me. I hope that's just me and that the point stays extended for you with no trouble. If not, send it back to me and I'll see if I can disassemble it and put a new transmission in it.
This has been fun!
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