What a Royal PIA this one was

[Old Griz]

Spalted Red Oak complete with bark inclusions... what a royal PIA this one was... used a lot of CA to stabilize the bark inclusions and spalting and needed to pack chip outs 4-5 times with thicker CA and cherry sanding dust.... Final dimensioning was done with 100 grit gouge to 800 grit then EEE cream, cellulose sealer, Turners Magic and then Carnuba wax...
And I have more of these blanks to work on.. thing I am going to try to stabilize some in Minwax Wood Hardener next time... LOL.. It has to be better than what I just went through...

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[Bev Polmanteer]

Well it looks to me that it was worth all your troubles! It's beautiful Tom.

 

[tipusnr]

I commend both your perserverance and your workmanship.

 

[woodman928]

Tom
I have used a lot of Red Oak in my woodshop and have never see anything as nice as this pen. Way to go it looks great and I am going to take a closer look at my scrap pile.
Jay

 

[C_Ludwigsen]

Okay, Tom. Now ya gone and done it. Showed your pen to my wife. She says "that is wonderful. Don't you have some burly red oak strips sitting on your bench?"... Guess you know what THAT means - SWMBO wants one like it ;-).

Great job. Since I can't stabilize mine with CA, what might be some other methods?

 

[bmac]

Nice looking pen Tom. I really like the way you present your pens with the background picture. Can you shed some light on how you do it or is that a trade secret?

Bobby

 

[Old Griz]

Chuck, you might try stabilizing with Minwax Wood Hardener... I have cut and drilled blanks and soaked them overnight in the Minwax.. I usually find them at the bottom in the morning... then let them dry for about 2 days..
By drilling the blanks before soaking them, the Minwax soaks in from both the outside and inside.. you might still have a little chipping if the soaking does not meet, but it is still better than no stabilizing at all.. especially if you can not use CA because of the fumes... it is not foolproof... but better than nothing..

 

[Old Griz]

Bobby, no trade secrets...
The pictures are scroll saw artwork and patterns I design and sell... The pens are not photographed, but scanned... I then use Photoshop to separate the pen from the background and insert it into a picture of one of my scroll saw pieces... I then set the background picture to about 50% transparancy.. and then add a drop shadow and a very little bit of outside glow to the pen, until I am happy with the effect...
I use Photoshop, but I am sure that the same thing can be done with a lot of other less expensive digital art software, maybe not at quickly, but it should be possible.