More Best of Hopefuls...

[Ed McDonnell]

Casting:





Forgot to take measurements before mailing, but it should be about 6" long and a little over 0.5" diameter. #5 bock nib and it's not intended to post. First cast was dark blue PR. Carved the design with my ornamental lathe and cast a second time with metal filled PR. Used aluminum and zinc to simulate pewter.

Open:




A celtic twist on the flag pen theme. Red, white and blue PR. Double casts.

Ed

 

[Robert111]

Beautiful work Ed! Lovely pens.

 

[PaulDoug]

Awesome! Now I know why I didn't even try to enter.

 

[mredburn]

fantastic pens;

 

[switch62]

Love the first one. Looks old world and elegant.

Just curious about the method you use to produce the pen, if I can ask.

You cast in blue, turn to shape, engrave pattern, then recast with metal fill, and turn to shape again. Is that right? Turning the second time must take a lot of skill and concentration, if you over turn you lose or distort the pattern.

 

[Displaced Canadian]

Those are top notch. My hat is off to you.

 

[Paul in OKC]

Nice!

 

[Ed McDonnell]

Thanks everyone for the compliments.

Love the first one. Looks old world and elegant.

Just curious about the method you use to produce the pen, if I can ask.

You cast in blue, turn to shape, engrave pattern, then recast with metal fill, and turn to shape again. Is that right? Turning the second time must take a lot of skill and concentration, if you over turn you lose or distort the pattern.

I was trying for an understated, rather than flashy, look with the first one. Glad you like it.

You summed up my process pretty well. The engraved pattern is about ten thousandths deep, so there isn't a lot of room for error. As you said, cut too deep and the pattern vanishes or distorts. But with very light cuts and sharp tools, it isn't too bad. You can see the pattern becoming visible as you get close (hopefully, all the way around and not just on one side).

The killer is runout. There are a lot of opportunities to introduce runout during the process as I move the work from casting, to lathe, to ornamental lathe and back. A couple thousandths in runout is pretty much fatal. I've got a box full of examples of how not to do it.

I've started using a dial indicator to check things at each step, but even then it doesn't always work.


Ed

 

[Andrew_K99]

Fantastic pen!! I really like the first one!!

AK