Two more pens

[David Walser]

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Here are pictures of a couple of pens I made recently. None of these are going to Tom Henry as part of the pen exchange. Tom, sorry, I had to get these done. I'll get to yours right after Memorial Day. Promise.

Both pens are made with the Sierra Elegant Beauty kits from Berea HardWoods. One in black titanium/gold titanium and the other in black titanium/platinum. The pen made with the "money blank" is for someone who is leaving our firm tomorrow to start dental school. The other pen is made with a grand piano inlay kit from Kallenshaan Woods. The pen is for the director of our church chior. The piano pen is finished with CA and buffed. The money blank is finished by going through all the micro mesh grits. No buffing.

I really like the money blanks. Everyone seems to prefer them to the same pen made with wood -- even if it's exceptional wood.

I also like working with the Kallenshaan inlay kit blanks. They are far more difficult to work with than I had thought they would be. While I'm pleased with the pen, there are a number of errors in it. First, I didn't get the tube centered in the length of the blank (which is why the piano keys are off center). I'd wrapped the tube in wax paper and used it as a "backer" as I pressed and glued the keyboard in place. (This was NOT how the instructions said to do it.) However, the CA glue leaked through the waxed paper and fixed the tube in place. Second, I was a little too aggressive in taking the tube down to close to finish size and got some tearout that required my reducing the diameter of the blank more than I'd planned. Don't hurry and follow the instructions!

Here are links to the kits and pen blanks:
http://bereahardwoods.com/Merchant5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=Sierra_Elegant_Beauty&Store_Code=BW&search=sierra_el&offset=&filter_cat=&PowerSearch_Begin_Only=&sort=&range_low=&range_high=

http://www.kallenshaanwoods.com/servlet/Page?template=5153&s=Grand+Piano+Pen+Inlay+Kit

http://www.woodturningz.com/Inlace_Acrylester_Pen_Blanks.aspx

Here are the pictures.

[Bernie Weishapl]

A couple of great looking pens. I find my acrylics sell better than wood. I sell 3 acrylics for every one wood. Don't know why.

[Steve Schlumpf]

David - great looking pens! I really like the money pen! Might be the color combination of the green and the black titanium/platinum. Very nice work!

[Tom Henry]

Great looking pens!!!! Patiently waiting :)

[David Walser]

Bernie, Steve, and Tom,

Thank you for the kind words. If you haven't tried one of the money blanks, you should give them a try.

Tom, don't get your hopes up. I'll try, but I can't promise your pen will be as nice as these. I've not turned much Douglas fir before. Are you sure that's what you want?

[John Terefenko]

Now if you did not mention any of the problems no one would have known. They both look great. Did you have any problems with colors bleeding onto one another with the piano pen??? I have a few of those money blanks that I need to make up. I like the kit you used. It gives me an idea now what it looks like on that kit. Thanks for showing and I know these will be well received.

[David Walser]

Now if you did not mention any of the problems no one would have known. They both look great. Did you have any problems with colors bleeding onto one another with the piano pen??? I have a few of those money blanks that I need to make up. I like the kit you used. It gives me an idea now what it looks like on that kit. Thanks for showing and I know these will be well received.

John,

Thanks for the comments. I mentioned the problems I had in the spirit of allowing others to learn from my experiance. Not a full product review, per se, but I hope others will find the info helpful.

I did have difficulty with colors bleeding from the black wood onto the white holy. The solution was to take a very light cut to clean everything up; apply a thin coat of CA glue to seal the holy, and then and the black wood by hand. The holy was not sanded. That's the finish off the tool (under several coats of CA glue). There's still some bleeding, but the effect is one I'm happy with. It looks a lot like antique ivory.

Surprisingly, I found I got the cleanest (no color bleeding) cut with a freshly sharpened and honed roughing gouge and NOT my skew. The skew left a smoother surface, but the holy was streaked with black. I think this is because of the skew's much wider bevel. There's more metal in contact with the wood that can contaminate the surrounding wood. Anyone else have any thoughts?

[John Terefenko]

John,

Thanks for the comments. I mentioned the problems I had in the spirit of allowing others to learn from my experiance. Not a full product review, per se, but I hope others will find the info helpful.

I did have difficulty with colors bleeding from the black wood onto the white holy. The solution was to take a very light cut to clean everything up; apply a thin coat of CA glue to seal the holy, and then and the black wood by hand. The holy was not sanded. That's the finish off the tool (under several coats of CA glue). There's still some bleeding, but the effect is one I'm happy with. It looks a lot like antique ivory.

Surprisingly, I found I got the cleanest (no color bleeding) cut with a freshly sharpened and honed roughing gouge and NOT my skew. The skew left a smoother surface, but the holy was streaked with black. I think this is because of the skew's much wider bevel. There's more metal in contact with the wood that can contaminate the surrounding wood. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Yes I guess that is a good idea about sharing our blunders as well as our successes. Thanks for explanation on the piano pen. I have found when dealing with woods side by side and different spicies, I turn my skew to a scraping cut and will get a ready to apply finish feel and look. I have looked at those blanks along with those puzzle blanks and maybe someday will splurge. Thanks for showing.

[David Walser]

...I have found when dealing with woods side by side and different spicies, I turn my skew to a scraping cut and will get a ready to apply finish feel and look. I have looked at those blanks along with those puzzle blanks and maybe someday will splurge. Thanks for showing.

Thanks for the suggestion for using the skew as a negative rake scraper. I'll have to give that a try.

In addition to the standard kits shown on the website, Kallenshaan Woods has many "custom" designs available. For example, I ordered an Alaskan state flag kit. (My sister was born there. Once the pen's been turned, I'll send the pen to be laser engraved with "Alaska -- Where stars are born". He'll then fill the engraving with gold.) Because someone else had already ordered an Alaskan flag kit, Ken did not charge me a set up fee nor was there a minimum order requirement. Despite the fact he didn't have my kit in stock, it arrived within a few days of my order.

He said he has already done most of the state flags -- and many other designs. It wouldn't hurt to give him a call to see if he already has a "custom" design you might want to use.