Recent experiments

[Alan Morrison]

These are my trials with using purfling.
All comments welcome.

 

[leehljp]

WOW! Your experiments, patience and skill have come to fruition!

 

[Sly Dog]

I second Hank - Superb, Alan!

 

[jttheclockman]

Some very nice looks. Are you cutting slots for the veneers after the shape of the pen is done? What are you using to cut the slots? How deep are you cutting? Are you coating with epoxy after? Thanks

 

[KenB259]

Those are something to be proud of, I love them. On a side note, I had to look up what purfling was . Turned out I knew what it was, just not what it is called.

 

[Jim15]

Those are beautiful.

 

[Cwalker935]

Great experimenting!

 

[Penchant 4]

Stunning designs! Excellent workmanship.

 

[mark james]

Those are beautiful Alan. There is a lot of precision needed to calculate the depth as to avoid turning/sanding away the inlays! I suspect many trial and error and note taking.

Thank you for sharing, mighty impressive.

 

[Alan Morrison]

Some very nice looks. Are you cutting slots for the veneers after the shape of the pen is done? What are you using to cut the slots? How deep are you cutting? Are you coating with epoxy after? Thanks

John, I cut the slots on the squared blank after it is on the tube using a slot cutter on a router table.
I go close to the tube and finish the slots using a rasp on a Dremel.
The purfling is epoxied in and the ends trimmed on the lathe before adding the material for the blank ends.
I will post some photographs soon.

Alan

 

[leehljp]

I will spill the beans on Alan. He has been experimenting with the Japanese process of box marquetry called Yosegi for short. It is an exact science of perfection, or 1/100mm will result in errors on the other end. A quick glance at it is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosegi

Alan has mastered that precision and all I can say is WOW!

 

[Alan Morrison]

Those are beautiful Alan. There is a lot of precision needed to calculate the depth as to avoid turning/sanding away the inlays! I suspect many trial and error and note taking.

Thanks for the comments, Mark.
I found the turning a lot easier when I realised that I needed to cut the slots for the purfling right down to the tube.
That took all the guess work out of it, but yes, there were a few binned tries before that.

Hope things are settled down for you.
Take care
Alan

 

[jttheclockman]

John, I cut the slots on the squared blank after it is on the tube using a slot cutter on a router table.
I go close to the tube and finish the slots using a rasp on a Dremel.
The purfling is epoxied in and the ends trimmed on the lathe before adding the material for the blank ends.
I will post some photographs soon.

Alan

OK got that part. Being that stuff is very thin, are you building up the layers in some way or are they celebrated within the blank and just recessed. That is probably the same stuff guitar makers use.

 

[Alan Morrison]

OK got that part. Being that stuff is very thin, are you building up the layers in some way or are they celebrated within the blank and just recessed. That is probably the same stuff guitar makers use.

John, I cut slots right down to the brass tube. The purfling is around 2.5mm thick which is just sufficient for a pen.
I only use a single layer.

Alan

 

[Alan Morrison]

I will spill the beans on Alan. He has been experimenting with the Japanese process of box marquetry called Yosegi for short. It is an exact science of perfection, or 1/100mm will result in errors on the other end. A quick glance at it is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosegi

Alan has mastered that precision and all I can say is WOW!

Hello Hank. Using this purfling is an awful lot easier than making Yosegi Zaiku patterns, though I have started back with it as my precision is far from perfect.
Thanks for your comments.

Alan

 

[jttheclockman]

John, I cut slots right down to the brass tube. The purfling is around 2.5mm thick which is just sufficient for a pen.
I only use a single layer.

Alan

That is thicker than I thought. Sure beats trying to do segmenting with tiny piece. Thanks for the photos and explanation. Nice work.