No.2

[Hippie3180]

The second wood pen went much better. Bloodwood is a much denser wood compared to Peruvian Walnut, more challenging to turn, less likely to sand through. Lol!

Bloodwood with Alumilite cast in house, section with partial sleeves.

 

[d_bondi]

Beautiful.
Is the cap fully sleeved? Just wondering about keeping the nib from drying out.

 

[Hippie3180]

Beautiful.
Is the cap fully sleeved? Just wondering about keeping the nib from drying out.

Thank you! Good question, it is not fully sleeved, but it is sealed.

 

[d_bondi]

Thank you! Good question, it is not fully sleeved, but it is sealed.

CA I assume...?

Question for you Michele. I like the look of the barrel with no alumilite flange/ring, just threads and then the wood. How are you doing this, are you turning the whole partial sleeve down to 13mm, cutting the M13 threads, then drilling and tapping for the section threads and then gluing into the wood blank?

 

[Hippie3180]

CA I assume...?

Question for you Michele. I like the look of the barrel with no alumilite flange/ring, just threads and then the wood. How are you doing this, are you turning the whole partial sleeve down to 13mm, cutting the M13 threads, then drilling and tapping for the section threads and then gluing into the wood blank?

Yes, ca.

So, once the sleeve is prepped for the mandrel and I'm turning it down to size I just turn that ring away.

 

[Hippie3180]

Capped pen with no rings.

 

[mark james]

Very well done! It sure is awesome seeing your progress, mighty nice. Thanks for sharing.

 

[bugradx2]

beautiful work!

 

[Hippie3180]

Very well done! It sure is awesome seeing your progress, mighty nice. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.
It's just so fun,I enjoy it so much!! Except when things don't work out then maybe it's not so fun! Lol! And actually I've gotten very good at problem solving with all the every day issues.

 

[PenCasso]

Beautiful!

I wish someone in Oklahoma would teach me how to do these pens.

This is my goal....

 

[Hippie3180]

Beautiful!

I wish someone in Oklahoma would teach me how to do these pens.

This is my goal....

Thank you!

We are both mostly self taught. We had some written instruction that helped somewhat + the taps, dies, drills and lathe…but we taught ourselves pretty much. Watched lots of You Tubes, read posts on here, asked questions. You can do it! We're still learning here 8 months in, we've made so many mistakes, but have also learned how to overcome them.

I would highly recommend viewing RJBWoodturner video's on YouTube, he has some on bespoke, kitless, handcrafted pens..whichever term you like. Very helpful. Also, Turners Warehouse has some YouTube videos on kitless I believe.

I would also recommend starting out with Alumilite, not wood, wood is a whole learning curve.

 

[Jim15]

Awesome work.

 

[PenCasso]

Thank you!

We are both mostly self taught. We had some written instruction that helped somewhat + the taps, dies, drills and lathe…but we taught ourselves pretty much. Watched lots of You Tubes, read posts on here, asked questions. You can do it! We're still learning here 8 months in, we've made so many mistakes, but have also learned how to overcome them.

I would highly recommend viewing RJBWoodturner video's on YouTube, he has some on bespoke, kitless, handcrafted pens..whichever term you like. Very helpful. Also, Turners Warehouse has some YouTube videos on kitless I believe.

I would also recommend starting out with Alumilite, not wood, wood is a whole learning curve.

I'm gonna have to check it out, to see what tools I need.

 

[rixstix]

Sharp looking pen. Well done.

 

[Dalecamino]

Indeed a pretty pen. Well done.

 

[Lew]

Absolutely gorgeous pen. I love how you were able to choose a blank that accentuated the grain in the bloodwood and the alumilite goes perfectly.

 

[egnald]

It is really cool that you can cast for your sections and sleeves to get such great colors to compliment the wood that you are using. - Dave

 

[Hippie3180]

It is really cool that you can cast for your sections and sleeves to get such great colors to compliment the wood that you are using. - Dave

That blank was lying around for a while, I picked it up because I thought it might work, because you never really know from the outside….and it happened to be a good choice. That is the big advantage to casting your own blanks though.

 

[Hippie3180]

Just so everybody knows, the more I look at this pen I see things I would tweak to make it better. There's always next time.

 

[d_bondi]

Just so everybody knows, the more I look at this pen I see things I would tweak to make it better. There's always next time.

I actually really like the learning part of the process.
I'm not saying that I see anything on your pen I would tweak , just that I do really like looking at my pens over time and thinking about what I would do differently.

 

[Hippie3180]

I actually really like the learning part of the process.
I'm not saying that I see anything on your pen I would tweak , just that I do really like looking at my pens over time and thinking about what I would do differently.

It seems there's almost always something I wish I had done differently. We are really still trying to find a comfortable size and style for us. Things seem to be evolving a lot as of late for us.