Love, Birch and Opals on Mother's Day

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Ben

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Joined
Mar 16, 2005
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Reno, NV, USA.
Here is my 3rd pen that I've made, but you could almost say it is my FIRST pen, because I made this one WITH MY OWN EQUIPMENT @ MY OWN HOUSE!!! [:I] I still would like to thank Lt. Dan for helping to get me started down this crazy road! So there I was last night until almost 3:00am and IT WAS AWESOME!!! This pen was a gift for my awesome mother for Mother's Day! Needless to say, she was floored by it!
It is a Chrome Cigar pen that is made out of Masur Birch w/ genuine Virgin Valley Nevada prescious Fire Opal inlays!!! In retrospect, I'd have done it slightly differently, but the fire in the opals still worked out!
I basically took a raw Masur Birch blank that I had "home stabilized"(in my Foodsaver vacuum chaber with Sanding Sealer) and dremeled out the "birdseyes". I the re-filled these voids with Virgin Valley opals that I hand collected myself almost 2 yrs. ago. I had to crush up the raw stones to a small enough consistancy that I was able to Stuff the voids full of!
Next time, (because the opals are a 5 1/2 on Mohs Hardness scale) I'm going to wait to puut the opals in until I've almost completed turning the blank; As I mentioned the Opal is about a 5 1/2 hardness, and does it ever beat up on the tools! I went through all 9 of my brand new various skews and gouges on these suckers, and sadly lost a few of the smaller bit of opal along the way. I've learned a few very valuable lessons on this one, and can't wait to "skill n' fill" some really punky red willow that I just won on ebay with more of these beautiful rainbow like stones!!!
I should be heading back up to the "Opal Fields" several times this summer, and if I can collect enough material would love to sell some through the group. This stuff is not cheap unfortunately. The neat thing about the Nevada Opals too is that unlike their opaque cousins of Australia, they are ALMOST CRYSTAL CLEAR & FILLED WITH FIRE!!!! I am going to try and experiment with them !!! This pen making thing is QUITE AMAZING!!! Have I mentioned that I am hooked! And now I've got my own equip. to reak some havoc on some poor wood!!!
Let me know what you guys think, and thanks again for being such a great group to be a part of. Oh I almost forgot, the finish is my first attempt at a BLO/CA, with a coat of Renaissance wax to boot! Take care,


Ben


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Here's a couple a close-ups of some of the opal...


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Daniel

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Jan 1, 2004
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Reno, NV, USA.
Great Job Ben, And congrats on the initiation of your new lathe.
your right the opal does snap right back.
 

Ben

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Joined
Mar 16, 2005
Messages
61
Location
Reno, NV, USA.
Thank you everybody. I truly appreciate all of your compliments... Can't talk too much more.. Got pens to make...[:p] just kidding. I've gotta get my sharpening tools all set up before I go any furthur. Take care, and thanks again,


Ben.
 

rtgleck

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Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Messages
414
Location
loveland, CO, USA.
Ben,

Great job there and wonderful inlay on that pen. The detailed pictures sure do show those Opals and they really turned out amazing in that pen. Wonderful Idean and great execution of it. I'm sure you mother will treasure it for a long time.
 
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