3 New Pens

[John W Dixon]

Haven't really shown any work on this forum so here are three pens I turned recently. I finally feel like I have taken 2 major steps forward in my pen turning. First I attribute to better sanding. I started sanding with the lathe much much slower. Around 200-250 rpm. I sand forward, then reverse, then stop the lathe and sand with the grain. Move through all the grits through 600 with this method. Then micro mesh.

Second I have gotten to where I feel comfortable with the ca and blo finish method. I am getting pretty repeatable finishes. I think one of my major faults was using way to much of the blo. I backed way off with it and also moved to medium ca glue rather than thick.

These 3 are all Rockler cigar pen kits. First one is Maple burl, second is Purpleheart and third is Bocote. Second pic is of the burl by itself. As always comments and critiques welcome.

John

[Ken Fitzgerald]

John,

Those are all three beauties! I especially like the bicote one!

Your finish looks good and you appear to be getting repeatable results.

Finishing IMHO is one of the most difficult parts on a project and each of us has to find a method that works for us. I was shown 2 different methods of CA finish and Russ Fairfield's CA and BLO method seems to work best for me. Other turners don't want BLO any where near a project but it works for me.

Nicely done....all 3 pens!

[John Terefenko]

John

Excellent job on the turning part and also the finishing part. You are definetly stepping up and have reached pro statis. I like them all but the maple burl is my favorite. I too like the cigar pen kit. Thanks for showing and keep up the great work.

[Horst Hohoff]

John,

I also have to say, that the pens are well crafted but I don't like the colour
scheme on the purpleheart pen. For me gold doesn't really go with this wood.
GUN METAL or BLACK TITAN would be much better ( IMO ).

[John W Dixon]

Thanks for the comments guys. Horst I appreciate your thoughts and you may be completely right. I think I shall order some of the gun metal or black and try that too. My wife is not a big fan of any of the gold and much prefers the chrome to it. I was pretty limited in the kits that I had on hand so that's what came out but I will try your advice in the future.

John

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice work on all three pens John! To me - the grain of the burl really steals the show! Hope to see some more of your work real soon!

[Skip Spaulding]

All are very nice, but I do like that maple.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking pens. Yep the maple is a eye catcher.