Magnus Maximus

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Ryan

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Feb 22, 2005
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Location
Draper, UT.
I have never named a pen before and I do not usually post them here, however I decided I would share this one.

Magnus has been in my mind for 18 months. I have a customer who wanted her really bad. I did not want to make her for him. He was VERY persitant and kept uping the $$ he would pay for her. It got to the point that I just had to find a way to get her made.

My first trial was finding the magnesium. The nations largest distributor of Mag. is just a 15 minute drive from me and I started there. They could not help me as they usually sale them in ton blocks. The search continued. No one local so now lets check the web.

After weeks of looking I stumbled onto a site and gave them a call. I explained what I was doing and what I needed and they could not help me, but gave the name and number of someone that could.:)

So now I have the mag how do I get it drilled and turned without catching my house on fire?[|)] I called almost every metal working outfit in town and found 2 that were willing to help. One of them wanted way too much money however. I Took the mag,brass tubes and a set of bushings to them and they rough turned them to almost final size. Great now I just need to do a little sanding and clean it up.

Enter Murphy.

I get the blank home and it is not round, it was not trimmed square or to the proper length. Now what to do.I decide that since I watched him rough turn some it that it could be safe to turn outside. The problem is it is January in UT and there was 6 inches of snow out side. If it catches on fire there is no dirt to through on it to put it out. If you put water on a mag fire it is like throghing gas on a fire. This is why most of the shops would not touch the project.

Anyway this is getting long so I will make it short. I made some tools to turn it with. Got it sanded and polished and put together and this is what she looks like.


2006210162530_Mag%20Statesman.jpg



The buyer was impressed and asked if I would make one for his father. I told him I would do aluminium for him:D He said what about a titamium shift knob for my car. Nope but you can call Bruce Boone:D:D He ended up buying 2 rings from Boone and Boone passed on the shift knob.
 
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Looks Great Ryan. I really like the shape. I did pass a request for a titanium shift knob on to a guy that used to work for me that's now making my bike parts. He has a bigger lathe and could handle the bigger stock better than my small lathe could.

The one concern I'd have about the pen is it's ability to corrode with sweat. Just keep it polished off and it probably won't be a problem. Do you have a weight for it?
 
I like the look if it, but like Bruce I'd be very concerned about corrosion. I'd try to keep a good coat of wax on it as well as a good polish.
I have some experince testing mag coatings to prevent corrosion and I think that is the last metal I would choose to work with. I have considered copper though and let it patina naturally.
 
Bruce,

We looked at having it powder coated because it tarnishes instantly, but no one around here would do it because it is mag. They have to bake it in the oven and they did not want it ignite. I talked to the shop that did all the powder coating for Hoyt on their bow's and he said he lost his shop at one time. He said the fire dept. showed up and did not know what to do because it was a mag fire. They ended up getting construction crew working down the street to come down with a backhoe and dump dirt on it to put it out.

It is not as light as I thought it would be. It weighed in at 2.9oz. My African Blackwood Statesman was 2.8oz.

If it tarnishes too bad the powder coaters told me to repolish it and put laq. on it and that will keep it from tarnishing as well.

Ryan
 
On the plus side, if you get stranded on a deserted island, you can use the pen to make a fire. The pen looks great.
 
The lacquer should be OK. It works for trumpets. The thought of a magnesium fire is very scary. I have titanium light up every now and then on the manual lathe, but it goes out quickly. It is so bright that it startles you. Magnesium continues to burn. It's something that I don't turn even though I could probably do it without incident. If it did happen to burn, it would take my lathe, house, and livelyhood with it. It's not worth the risk to me.

The look you have there is very similar to stainless or titanium. It looks a bit darker than aluminum.
 
I don't usually comment on non-wood pens but yours is unique and you are to be complimented (or confined to the looney bin) [;)] for going to so much trouble to produce this one pen. She wants more? Tell her this is a one of a kind, and, as others suggested, go with aluminum for the next.
 
Love the pen. Extra nice! Maybe it's just me, but the mag fire scare is a little overstated. When we go cold camping, we take pieces of mag along to throw in the campfire for extra warmth (and it's cool looking). Nothing like sitting outside at night with no shirt in a snow storm and your dry and warm wearing sunglasses. It ususally takes a half hour to an hour before it ingites and we put it in a bed of coals that been going for hours to get enough heat to get it started.
 
It does depend how thick it is. Thin chips will light up just from the heat of machining. A big piece will take a lot longer to light. I wonder if an aluminum/ magnesium alloy lights as easily.
 
Powder coat ovens are usually about 500 degrees. The thinner the metal the greater the risk of start up.

Bruce is right! It does not take much for the thin ribbons to get started. I kept some of them just to play with. It is great fun to watch it burn. I am also keeping the extra pieces to put in my fire pit.

Ryan
 
Great job on the pen Ryan. Sounds like it was a pain.
So why was he insistant on magnesium? If it corrodes and nobody want to work on the stuff.
 
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