The only reason it took 4 blanks was because I kept making mistakes. This thing had more blow outs than an 18 wheeler running 5 year old retreads. It was a real learning experience, but that's what I think is fun about making pens. Anyway Tim, I'm glad you liked it.
My wife still can't believe I made the pen to give away. I tried to explain the whole PITH thing to her, but she kinda tunes me out when I start talking about pens, so I'm not really sure she gets it.
Here are a few more shots during production.
Doing the double scallops with bloodwood & ebony.
1st big blowout. The ebony cracked, and a piece chipped off. I still tried to fix it, but it just didn't look right. Notice the hole in the ebony. My original idea was to put bloodwood shavings in the ebony side, and ebony shavings on the bloodwood sides. But since I was having so much trouble, I scratched that part of the pen.
Here it is with the front section turned off. You can see the new front section in the upper right of the picture. This one was also rejected. But it was before I ever glued it on the tube.