Some more pens- Ebony and Box Elder

[Rob Price]

So had another visit to my 'dealer' yesterday- my buddy who's teaching me the ropes of turning as well as supplying me with wood. We were talking about some pens I had been making, I told him I was trying to use scraps of interesting woods for pens for gifts for friends. So we took a visit to his 'exotic cutoffs' bin. He traded me a 3/4"x 12" stick of Ebony and a 1x3x12 piece of Kingwood, and a 2x2x24 of Ipe as long as I promised to give him a pen out of each one. He also has some Purple Heart, Yellow Heart, and some other latin sounding wood I can't remember 'waiting' for me. I also grabbed some drops of a Box Elder table he made for one of his customers and bought a 3x10x9 walnut crotch cut off (now bowl blank) from some legs he's making for the same customer (different table). That's why my wife calls him my 'dealer.'

I'm also getting a good feel for using my skew on these bad boys. The box elder seemed pretty soft and I had to sand the grain down a bit- forward and reverse. The Ebony pen went from skew to 400 grit sandpaper with good results. Probably could have gone to micromesh except for one little mark that had to be sanded out.

Anyways, here's the efforts:
Box Elder Euro Pen. Some of the worm holes went all the way to the brass, took a while to fill but I tried to be patient with it (very hard for me to do). My best CA finish to date, I think. My wife has a friend who is giving away hand made crafts trying to spread word of mouth and get a blog up and running- I think I'll send this one to her. Sorry for the fingerprints on the nib, I'll have to reshoot this one.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_i5V6ddaIYI/Tyla_NiNDaI/AAAAAAAABm0/QqCkKRRN1FE/s640/IMG_1608.JPG

This is the White Oak Burl pen I made for my wife, I posted a poor pic of it earlier, here's a better closeup. I had it stabalized, couldn't really tell a difference, finished with Wood Tuner's Finish from General Finishes. I didn't sand it enough I think. I've had more consistent results with this finish, but it builds REALLY slow, so I'm going to save it for tight grained woods. The final 'feel' of the pen is better to me.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WuTpHkIBlE8/TylbAKh13CI/AAAAAAAABm8/N1Tq7AnrmIw/s640/IMG_1624.JPG

And Ebony. My buddy wanted it natural, no finish. I put a little oil on it and wax trying to give it some sheen, knowing it will wear and hopefully pick up it's own oils and patina over time. The grain is really hard to see, this is some black stuff, it's even harder to photograph. Wall St II Black Titanium/Platinum pen kit, I didn't like the black plastic nib look of some of their other Wall St II pens- of course this is one expensive pen kit. I had bought this for some more of the oak burl but it seemed like it would be a good fit for the Ebony. It did crack a bit near the clip- I don't know if that's from not finishing it, brittle wood, or just bad luck. You really have to look hard to see it, at first it looks like grain (and maybe it is) but I think it's a small crack. We'll see what it does, it may get added to the personal pen pile and I'll try again for my dealer.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XuA_EkG0wWs/TylbAl2My1I/AAAAAAAABnE/M5f7Qdy9OHQ/s640/IMG_1625.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-xIEhdW_JRYk/TylbBZVdKkI/AAAAAAAABnM/Ss_alNZyxMA/s640/IMG_1629.JPG

Thanks for looking! Next will be the Kingwood and Ipe. Better sharpen my chisels. Any tips trying to photograph the Ebony? I can barely see the grain with my naked eye let alone photograph it. Comments/Critiques appreciated.

[Jim Burr]

Nice job Rob! BEB is tough to get a pen out of...yours looks cool! Good luck with the ebony...I can't take pics worth crap and gave up trying.

[James Combs]

Rob, those are some great looking pens, I especially like the Oak burl. I am positive the recipients of these pens will be pleased. Many people like the "bare" wood look as on the Ebony WSII but my personal taste runs to the glassy finishes. Thanks for showing them and keep em commin.

[Dave Mura]

Those are nice!
http://chdsolutions.com/img/11d867796d85db8cad5280ac44cec7c1.jpghttp://chdsolutions.com/img/a57d48399922b03419153a9760c5ce53.jpghttp://chdsolutions.com/img/beda24c1e1b46055dff2c39c98fd6fc1.jpg

[Donny Lawson]

Very nice pens. If you make another Box Elder pen with holes you can just add some coffee grounds with your finger and add some thin CA and then let dry and sand. Turns out great every time with me.

[Rob Price]

Very nice pens. If you make another Box Elder pen with holes you can just add some coffee grounds with your finger and add some thin CA and then let dry and sand. Turns out great every time with me.

Perfect, that would have been much easier and probably look better. I do have some more of the box elder, so that should come in handy. That would probably help for worm holes in the oak as well. Thanks for the tips.

[Joe Watson]

Slick looking work, nice job.

[Rob Price]

Donny, I tried your suggestion on another box elder pen, except I used some of the ebony dust sitting on my drill press from the ebony pen. It looks great! Slick and smooth like black epoxy almost. Thanks again.

[John Terefenko]

Rob They all came out real well. I like the black ebony pen and hopefully it will not crack. Ebony has a tendency to do that. I used it also in my segmented pen and I too hope it does not crack. I went with Gabon because I hear that is abit more stable. I will say also Kingwood is one of those woods that has that tendency. I have not used it on a pen though so can not speak from experience. It is a rosewood family wood so treat the oil problem too before finishing. I usually just wipe down with acetone before applying finish. Good luck and look forward to more great pens. Thanks for showing.

[Baxter Smith]

Very nice pens!