Thuya Burl - My best pen yet

[John Hart]

Howdy,
I really slowed down and tried to do this one perfect. Plus, I added another step. After sanding to 1200, I cut off a piece of a Home Depot yard bag and sanded with the paper. It gave this wood such a brilliant shine, that I wasn't sure whether I should do anything else. It seems like this Thuya has oil content of it's own. Anyway, I finally decided to finished off with HUT. I am very satisfied with this one.

Thanks for lookin'

[thomas prevost]

John great pen! OT I am equally impressed with your skill as a photographer. All of your projects are presented slendidly with the addition of props etc. I only wish I had your skill with either the lathe or camera.

[Keith Burns]

Excellent pen as usual. I agree your presentation photos are quite nice as well.

[Dick Parr]

That is a great looking pen John, you did it justis. :)

[John Hart]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I'm really quite the novice on the photography though. I'm trying to get a little photo booth set up but it seems I just don't have the time. Gary Max has threatened to whip me into shape so I hope to get better at it. I think I have a bit of a lighting problem.

[Adam Howard]

John,


That's a gorgeous pen! Super work. I really like your setup, and the photography is very good.

I think your lighting problem may have to do with the white balance correction on your camera. Are you shooting digital? If so, it can probably be corrected for whatever light source you're using.

On my camera, you can use whatever lights you want, place a black background in place and use a white card to set the white balance. Then, when you take pictures, the color is like daylight, instead of having a hue.

Here's a link to a short write-up of my setup. I'm certainly no expert, but I'm happy with my photos, aside from the need for some diffusion.

http://home.comcast.net/~oxhoward/photography.htm

Again, great pen!!

[John Hart]

Thanks Adam! That was a lot of help. I have the same shop lights out in the garage collecting dust. Nice to know they'll get used for something other than late night auto repair!!:rolleyes: Your site answered most of my questions so I'll give 'er a go on the next pen.

By the way, I had to stop and drool over your Brick pen again. That thing is just beautiful.

[Kurt Aebi]

John,

Excellent pen.. I use kraft paper (brown paper shopping bak) to "sand" my pens all the time, another trick I use is sawdust from the pen that I just made to "burnish" the pen and reall bring out the shine before applying the finish. Just take some of th eshavings from the pen you made and hold it with the kraft paper and hold it against the pen until you get the shine you are looking for.

Great Job!

[Ernie Nyvall]

That is a real beaut John. Stepping up.

Ernie