LeeK
Member
Here are a few pics of my recent pens. I'm new to the forums and hope I am attaching the pics correctly.
When I purchased the stone, it was labeled as Soap Stone, however after working with it, I'm fairly certain it's actually alabaster. There was certainly a learning curve. It's very brittle and not forgiving like wood. Especially when pressing the pen parts together. I had to be very careful not to over pressure the parts.
So far I've made 3 successful pens and confident I can make more now that I understand the material much better.
These are finished to a polish. The first attempt I tried a CA glue finish, but the stone is not porous. The CA glue actually flaked off when I was doing the final polish. The stone itself has a beautiful gloss. I've read a few places to use a bit of paste wax, but even a touch of wax seemed to make it look dull, besides, as I mentioned, the stone isn't porous, so there's not much for anything to stick to.
Enjoy,
-Lee
SE Michigan
When I purchased the stone, it was labeled as Soap Stone, however after working with it, I'm fairly certain it's actually alabaster. There was certainly a learning curve. It's very brittle and not forgiving like wood. Especially when pressing the pen parts together. I had to be very careful not to over pressure the parts.
So far I've made 3 successful pens and confident I can make more now that I understand the material much better.
These are finished to a polish. The first attempt I tried a CA glue finish, but the stone is not porous. The CA glue actually flaked off when I was doing the final polish. The stone itself has a beautiful gloss. I've read a few places to use a bit of paste wax, but even a touch of wax seemed to make it look dull, besides, as I mentioned, the stone isn't porous, so there's not much for anything to stick to.
Enjoy,
-Lee
SE Michigan