My First Pens

[Kris Langohr]

Well after spending a bunch of time turning big sticks into little sticks as practice I decided to give the pen thing a go. I have done 5 so far (in chronological order from left to right in the photo). All are based on a slimline pen kit and I have been experimenting with a comfortable size and shape. The first 3 are acrylic finished to 12000 with Micro Mesh. The 4th pen is Ash sanded to 600 grit, 2 coats of CA, sanded back to wood and then 6 coats of CA. The last pen is Lacewood finished the same way as the Ash except 7 coats of CA and done to 12000 with the Micro Mesh.

Comments/Criticism welcome!

211148

Thanks,
Kris

[Paul Heely]

I'd say your practice payed off. All the pens look fine to me. I've never turned acrylic, but it looks like it finishes up very nicely. Good job.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice looking pens. Looks like you did a fine job.

[Kris Langohr]

It turns and finishes nicely but the smell if horrible. Even with my dust collector and an air filter going I can still get the occasional whiff of it a week later. The wood was definately nicer to work with.

[Jim Burr]

You are on your way Kris!! Very well done.

[Keith E Byrd]

Very nicely done - the practice paid off - My first pens looked nothing like that! No more scraps in your shop!

[Donny Lawson]

Kris, those are nice looking pens. One question, Did you paint the tubes on the Acrylic pens? Alot of times if you do not paint the tubes with a matching color the brass tube will show through.

[Allan Ferguson]

Looking good. Have fun with the turning.

[Kris Langohr]

I did not in this case. I knew I was going to turn them rather thick so I wasn't too concerned about getting color matched tubes for them. The second pen is the thinnest of the acrylics and there is a small amount of show through in a couple of spots even with it being thicker than the slimline typically would be. If I was going to turn one of them thinner going with a black tube probably would have been a good choice.

[Jim Burr]

Keep in mind if you paint the tube silver, it brightens the colors rather than black or white that alters it. Keep the paint thin though!! DAMHIKT!!!

[James Combs]

Really great start Kris. Make sure you put the first one up someplace as a keepsake. Still have my serial number "one" after a couple hundred since I started. I can see vast improvement in both fit and finish when I compare number one with a current pen.