1) The maple is not dyed. I bout a piece of "birdseye maple" from a supplier about two year ago. That is it. Many people have disputed its origin. If you all have any ideas about wood type I would like to know.
2.) Thanks for the compliment on the Fatline. They are pretty easy. Prepare your blanks as usual. Get a cool looking scrap cutoff from a previous pen ( you should have plenty laying around) and drill a 1/4" hole in it. I usually drill holes in about 10-15 cutoffs. Mount a stack of the cuttoffs on your mandrel. Round all of them off. Use a small parting tool (I use one from a mini HSS set from PSI) and run the tool where two separate pieces of wood come together. Take it down close to the mandrel. Repeat this at every joint. If you go too far and get to the mandrel the blanks with start slipping because you will lose compression from the knurled nut. At this point I use the same parting tool to start dividing the scraps. I make some skinny and some wide divisions. Again I stay away from completing the cut.
Now I remove them from the mandrel and use my utility knife with a sharp razor blade to shave off the ends left from the parting tool. This should ensure that both ends are parallel. Now put them back on the mandrel (you will likely need some extra wood or bushings on there to make up for the wood you have removed). This is where it gets a little tedious.
Go back to the parting tool and starting at the nut end start completing the parting cuts. Undo the nut, pull off the part, trim, add a bushing/wood cuttoff, tighten the nut and go to the next one.
By now you should have at least one small wood donut of whatever wood you chose. Now put your slimline blanks on but relace the middle bushing with the wood donut. Now turn your pen to whatever style/thickness you like. You are not limited by the center bushing anymore! After finish sanding I do one of two things.
1) If I want a floating CB I put a little bit of oil between the wood CB and the blanks then I add my CA-BLO finish. When I am done I can usually just separate the pieces with out any problem.
2) I have started using CA to attach CB to the upper tube then finish the pen normally.