dyed and stabilized

[Mark Hix]

Someone on another site asked for volunteers to test his new product. Of course, I volunteered. I do not know what his process is (yet) but this is the result.

Blue died maple on a chrome Sedona kit. It was sanded, CA finish then buffed. Whatever his process, the dye penetrated pretty well and there was no smell when I turned it.

I bought one of those cheep ($19.99) photo tent/lights kits and the improvment in my photos was dramatic. The downside is that now I need to redo the photos on my website. I still need to work on the light placement to eliminate the reflections in the chrome.

Thanks for looking.

[David E Keller]

It looks good. I've got a couple of these to test out if I can ever make it out to the shop.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Pen looks mighty fine and photo's do look good.

[Robert Parrish]

Looks great Mark, which kit did you buy? I'm looking for one.

[John Keeton]

He sure did a good job of getting a "blue" on the maple. I have been playing around with the dyes some, and when I apply blue, the amber in the maple gives me a green cast.

[Richard Madison]

Nice pen Mark. What color is the background in your photo?

[Mark Hix]

Thanks for looking and the comments.
The kit is a chrome Sedona from Arizona Sillouettes. It has proven to be a good seller for me.
The background color is just a little darker grey than the photo shows...more practice!

He also provided a buckey burl that I had a catch with and tore out a chunk. I fixed it but the crack just jumps out at me so I did not assemble it.

This one has an inside joke. Litterally. I started to turn 2 Sierras from the blank, had it cut, drilled and tubed and then changed my mind. The cap was no big deal, I just drilled out the tube with the larger bit for the cap. The problem was the lower barrell. It was smaller than the Sierra barrell by 2/64ths. What the heck, give it a try. I epoxied in the tube of the Sedona lower barrell and trimmed it to size. Surprise, it was close enough that the epoxy filled the gap and it held. I tried to tap it loose when I put the end on and it held up to fairly hard pressure. It is turned pretty thin because of this but you would not know it to look at it.

Thanks again.
Mark