Some Simple Segments - Dyed Buckeye Burl and Ziricote

[guitarchitect]

Well, I had a great time attending a number of virtual talks at the MPG and sunday night thought I should end the weekend with a pen! I wanted some really dark wood with some really bright segments - that evolved a bit as I evaluated my stash but this is what I came up with!

The accent rings are double-dyed buckeye burl, the main body is ziricote, and the accent bands are brass. Finish is GluBoost, and I had to wet-sand with thin CA early on to fill up all the open pores in the ziricote. I got the cleanest cuts I could with my carbide insert tool, and then did the wet sand (and started sanding) with 400. I used micomesh semi-dry on the whole pen up to 4000 grit to take any scratches out of the brass, then scuffed it with synthetic steel wool and went through the usual CA process.

 

[jjjaworski]

Nicely proportioned. Looks great. Good job on this.

What is the pen kit you used?

 

[guitarchitect]

Nicely proportioned. Looks great. Good job on this.

What is the pen kit you used?

Thanks!
It's called the Luxor - uses a SKM-88 mechanism. It's available at http://www.penblanks.ca, I think it's unique to them. My last post, wenge and soapstone, used the same kit with a gold plating if you want to see that

 

[Kcimdrib]

Fantastic looking Pen and great finish. Well done.

 

[KenB259]

Nice pen. Even though it goes against how I learned, Glu Boost recommends using the thin last. It might have made filing the pores easier.

 

[mark james]

Excellent work. Lovely combination of materials.

 

[jttheclockman]

Very nicely done. Just a simple segmenting can do so much for the look of a blank and step the kit up a couple notches. I bought a few of these kits but have not tried one yet. I am thinking I may just have to now that I see yours. Thanks for showing.

 

[leehljp]

The brass rings really accentuate the segments well. Often, I see segments in formats similar to your pen - without aluminum, copper or brass rings, - and they seem to be missing something. Brass, copper and aluminum spacers are like great looking picture frames on a beautiful picture. A beautiful picture frame sets the picture up and the spacers accentuate the segment colors exceptionally well.

BTW, are you using a mandrel/bushing set up?

 

[Jim15]

That's a beauty.

 

[guitarchitect]

Nice pen. Even though it goes against how I learned, Glu Boost recommends using the thin last. It might have made filing the pores easier.

I do actually! When I have open pores a wet sand with thin fills them all usually with one pass. I've used it on afzelia lay, Wenge, ancient bog oak, and it works very well. After that, I do 2-3 coats of medium and 3-4 coats of thin. On really open grains I need a lot more coats of medium and even then it doesn't look as nice.

Hot tip though: I also find a coat of thin pops chatoyance/grain/color more than starting with medium, as the thin really penetrates well.

 

[guitarchitect]

Very nicely done. Just a simple segmenting can do so much for the look of a blank and step the kit up a couple notches. I bought a few of these kits but have not tried one yet. I am thinking I may just have to now that I see yours. Thanks for showing.

Yes, I have found that segments really help this kit! In this post you can see some more at the bottom, and this post later in the thread shows another approach, some bands on the ends (rather than inset). The kit can be a little too "plain" and adding something on or near the ends really helps a lot. I did one with soapstone too - if I was redoing that one I might do a simple brass inlay ring towards the grip to balance it out a bit.

 

[guitarchitect]

The brass rings really accentuate the segments well. Often, I see segments in formats similar to your pen - without aluminum, copper or brass rings, - and they seem to be missing something. Brass, copper and aluminum spacers are like great looking picture frames on a beautiful picture. A beautiful picture frame sets the picture up and the spacers accentuate the segment colors exceptionally well.

BTW, are you using a mandrel/bushing set up?

Yes, I agree - the "interstitial" layer is a big help! I actually have 0.16", 0.32", and 0.64" for each of brass copper and aluminum (the standard K+S hobby sized product). I find they help me "hide my crimes" too, I haven't made a jointing jig for my tablesaw yet which would get perfectly mating faces. I've been trying to use the materials with an eye towards the plating on the kit (brass for gold, copper/aluminum for chrome), and in this case I thought I would end up using the gold kit, but it distracted too much from the intensity of the bands when I did. What i've learned is that to get a good finish on the metal, I can't touch the blank with anything rougher than 400 grit once I'm done turning.

And yep, I'm using bushings and a mandrel! I'll admit I'm a little "fast and loose" when I turn... don't tell anyone but I put it on the fastest speed and leave it there for turning, sanding, and wet-sanding I switch to non-sticks before I sand. I've found that if I leave it the tiniest bit proud of the bushing, my first go with 240 grit sandpaper will take it the rest of the way and give me a perfect match with the kit. I think I'm a bit fat here because i only did a very light sand at 400 and didn't compensate for that!

 

[KMCloonan]

Agree with everything above. I really like the flash of the brass inserts. definitely classy. What glue did you use to keep the blank together while you drilled?

 

[Ray-CA]

Well, I had a great time attending a number of virtual talks at the MPG and sunday night thought I should end the weekend with a pen! I wanted some really dark wood with some really bright segments - that evolved a bit as I evaluated my stash but this is what I came up with!

The accent rings are double-dyed buckeye burl, the main body is ziricote, and the accent bands are brass. Finish is GluBoost, and I had to wet-sand with thin CA early on to fill up all the open pores in the ziricote. I got the cleanest cuts I could with my carbide insert tool, and then did the wet sand (and started sanding) with 400. I used micomesh semi-dry on the whole pen up to 4000 grit to take any scratches out of the brass, then scuffed it with synthetic steel wool and went through the usual CA process.

Did you use a CA glue for segments?

They look GREAT!

Ray

 

[leehljp]

And yep, I'm using bushings and a mandrel! I'll admit I'm a little "fast and loose" when I turn... don't tell anyone but I put it on the fastest speed and leave it there for turning, sanding, and wet-sanding

The reason I asked is that I could see what appeared to be a small tale-tale sign. the bottom end just above the nib end shows a little bit of separation of the finish from the wood blank. In general, that happens when the bushings are stuck to the blank and then the CA/GlueBoost snaps as it breaks apart and causes a lifting of the finish off of the end of the blank. It could be lighting, but I had to ask. Thanks and well done.

 

[guitarchitect]

@KMCloonan and @Ray-CA - it's all CA actually!

A couple things I do - I actually pre drill everything and assemble on-tube. For oily woods (I've used CA on ebony, Wenge, ziricote so far) I clean any gluing surface with acetone, including down the hole with a qtip. I give it 5 minutes to evaporate. Then I use ez-bond thick to get everything on the tube and between segments, and if I see any gaps at the end I use medium starbond. I hit the outside with accelerator to keep it from leaking out of the gaps. I give it another 5 mins to dry and clean up the shop - then I barrel trim and then trim the corners at the bandsaw to around 2-3mm of my finished dimension. At that point I know if the glue is dry, if there's anything tacky inside I leave it another couple minutes. Start to finish the pen takes about two hours.

 

[KMCloonan]

Impressive! Thanks for sharing.

Kevin