My lathe still works! Antler pen and photography question.

[Rob Price]

Still been over a year since I turned anything. I have several bowls roughed out, and three waiting on finish, so hopefully I'll have more to share in the coming weeks. Especially once fall gets here and yard work slows down.

Gunmetal bolt action pen. Some kind of deer antler a buddy gave me. I traded him a pen for some antlers. I'm curious what you guys do with the marrow. I worked it down to nearly finished dimensions, hand sanded to fill the pores with dust, and then soaked the dust with CA glue. Once that cured I finished and just polished it. No other finish.

[Rob Price]

Photo question: what's a good basic photo tent/light package? I'm looking at some 24" kits with included lights for $50ish on Amazon. I have a basic DSLR Nikon 3300.

[Steve Peterson]

Nice looking pen. I have done a couple and usually just fill the holes with CA glue. It fills in smoothly if you build up enough layers. I may have had to sand, then add a few more layers because my technique is not so great.

It is rare to get a piece of antler that is perfectly smooth without any finish. Most pieces have a lot of pith. I usually drill off center to make sure that there is some solid bone in the finished pen. Sometimes you can even get two blanks from a single piece of antler.

Steve

[Rob Price]

The antler I the picture is pretty much what I started with. Very small. The pen is mostly bone, I showed the marrow there as it was the most interesting part. Here's the other side. The bone polished very well. The marrow is filled with CA and dust so it turned out fairly smooth as well but I like a little of texture to the bone as a 'natural' substrate. I imagine it will only further polish with use.