Jeffrey Fusaro
02-12-2007, 11:09 PM
Here are two photos of my first pen.
It’s a Rhodium and Black Titanium Emperor Pen kit from Craft Supplies USA. The wood is Ebony. The finish is Hut PPP polish followed by Renaissance Wax. The Ebony was sanded thru 1500 grit, prior to finishing.
The pen kit was a Christmas gift from my wife. Before starting on the pen, I ordered five additional sets of brass tubes and I bought several species of pen blanks. My thinking was that I would make multiple tubes sets from the assorted blanks, and then select the best looking set.
The first set was made with imported Dunno wood – red in color. After they were finished, I didn’t care for the color. The wood was real soft, also. Strike one. :(
The second set was made with Ebony. I tried to contour them, but the shape got away from me and they ended up with an odd bulge in the middle. Strike two. :(
The third set was made with African Blackwood. Nice stuff. Very hard. I was really optimistic about set number three, until I got the wood almost turned down to final size. Then, a gnarly void appeared in the wood (insert cuss words here). :mad: I tried to fill it with CA and saw dust, but it ended up looking terrible. Strike three. :(
Still not deterred, I made another set with my last Ebony blank. The contouring was going fine, until another gnarly void appeared (more colorful language). :mad: This void was not as bad as the Blackwood, so I was able to fill and conceal it with CA and sawdust. I then sanded and finished the set of tubes.
By this time, I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to finish the pen. So, I decided that it was time to “shoot the engineer and go into production” with the final set of Ebony tubes.
All in all, I am not totally satisfied with the pen. It’s not bad for a first attempt, but a few things bother me. First, the finish isn’t as lustrous as I would have liked. It appears to be a bit dull. Second, the final contours of the barrels are a bit “dumpy” in my opinion. But, after looking at them for the past few days, they are growing on me.
I think I did OK getting the wood and the pen hardware to match up. There are no gaps or steps. :cool:
I’ve got more pen kits on order, so I’m looking forward to trying again.
Please feel free to comment.
Thanks for looking!
It’s a Rhodium and Black Titanium Emperor Pen kit from Craft Supplies USA. The wood is Ebony. The finish is Hut PPP polish followed by Renaissance Wax. The Ebony was sanded thru 1500 grit, prior to finishing.
The pen kit was a Christmas gift from my wife. Before starting on the pen, I ordered five additional sets of brass tubes and I bought several species of pen blanks. My thinking was that I would make multiple tubes sets from the assorted blanks, and then select the best looking set.
The first set was made with imported Dunno wood – red in color. After they were finished, I didn’t care for the color. The wood was real soft, also. Strike one. :(
The second set was made with Ebony. I tried to contour them, but the shape got away from me and they ended up with an odd bulge in the middle. Strike two. :(
The third set was made with African Blackwood. Nice stuff. Very hard. I was really optimistic about set number three, until I got the wood almost turned down to final size. Then, a gnarly void appeared in the wood (insert cuss words here). :mad: I tried to fill it with CA and saw dust, but it ended up looking terrible. Strike three. :(
Still not deterred, I made another set with my last Ebony blank. The contouring was going fine, until another gnarly void appeared (more colorful language). :mad: This void was not as bad as the Blackwood, so I was able to fill and conceal it with CA and sawdust. I then sanded and finished the set of tubes.
By this time, I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to finish the pen. So, I decided that it was time to “shoot the engineer and go into production” with the final set of Ebony tubes.
All in all, I am not totally satisfied with the pen. It’s not bad for a first attempt, but a few things bother me. First, the finish isn’t as lustrous as I would have liked. It appears to be a bit dull. Second, the final contours of the barrels are a bit “dumpy” in my opinion. But, after looking at them for the past few days, they are growing on me.
I think I did OK getting the wood and the pen hardware to match up. There are no gaps or steps. :cool:
I’ve got more pen kits on order, so I’m looking forward to trying again.
Please feel free to comment.
Thanks for looking!