I gave up cigarettes...and took up cigars....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Here's my first cigar pen. This was for practice for the upcoming one for a friend of my DIL. Black titanium cigar pen in curly sycamore with a CA and BLO finish. My first....

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Comments and critiques welcomed!

[Steve Schlumpf]

What practice - that looks perfect! Beautiful wood and finish! Don't see how you could possibly improve on that one! Very nice work Ken!

[Tom Wilson66]

Wish my first attempt at anything was that good.

[Eugene Wigley]

I agree with Steve. They are beautiful Ken. Thanks for sharing.

[Jon Lanier]

Ken,

I think that is an excellent looking pen. Keep them coming.

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Wow! Those are great. I love the way the curly grain in the wood you chose makes the surface look... wavy! Seriously good work Ken!

Keep the pics coming! One of these days I am going to have to try and make a pen! :D You are very very bad for my wallet Ken!

Thanks!

Joshua

[Brian Brown]

Very nice pen Ken. The craftsmanship and finish are excellent. I wish I could get a CA finish to look that good. I have only tried a couple of times, but the results were disasterous. It looked terrible, and I nearly glued myself to the lathe. I really like your choice of wood. The curl is very nice.

Your photography is coming along nicely as well. Reflective metal is hard to work with. I am teaching my class how to do metal in a couple of weeks. They usually hate that class. If I could offer a minor critique of your photography, it would be to wipe the fingerprints off the surfaces before you shoot.

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It is a very minor issue here, but if the fingerprint was large, it would be really noticable. They show up on the metal, and dull the surface of the wood. Some people wear cotton gloves, but my skin is so rough from turning, the cotton sticks like velcro. I wear latex gloves, and that way I don't dirty my nice clean surfaces. I really like the wood object (bowl) used to hold up your pen, because it echos the "wood" idea. If you shoot the pen just laying on a clean surface and it wants to roll to an orientation you don't like, you can use floral wax or a putty made by 3M to temporarily stick them in place. Both clean off well after you're done.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian.....great eyes! I'll keep that in mind when I shoot the next one.

Do a search on International Association of Penturners. Go to their website and the library forum. Russ Fairfield has a video there about using the BLO and CA finish. It's almost foolproof. I find it much easier to use than just CA by itself.

Thanks again for the critique!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ken that is a super looking Cigar. Great looking wood. Well done my friend.

[Mike Ramsey]

Great looking pen ken! Glad you got the 3520B pen lathe!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike....Maybe I turned that on the "Bomb"? It's still there in the shop.....

But really I just wanted to prove you can turn something small on a big lathe!:rolleyes:

[robert hainstock]

Good job in the pens Ken. I believe you maentioned one time that you had a HF 34706 lathe(?) I recently retired mine to pen making duty. It does a great job. So whatever "The bomb" is, it doesn't have do a whole lot to turn a pen. :)
Bob

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Robert....the "Bomb" is a Jet VS Mini the inmate turners here gave me nearly 3 years ago. I got into a teasing match with them. They decided I needed to learn to turn. They took up a collection and sent me a Jet VS Mini, a bunch of tools, videos, wood, and SN2 chuck. I ended up with about $1100-1200 worth of stuff. My shop was nearing completion when it arrived. It was another 18 months before I got back to finishing my shop. Last fall I upgraded to a PM3520B. Mike is "gigging" me about using a PM3520B to make a pen.

Morale of the story: Don't tease turners....they will get even!:D

[David Drickhamer]

Great job on the pen Ken. Makes me want to make a cigar pen tomorrow. All I've done so far are slim line and Euros.
Dave

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Thanks David. I actually found the cigar pen easier to do than the Euros and the slimlines as far as form goes. The bushings I got from CSUSA were the most accurate I have had so far. Using dial calipers to measure the bushings I found they matched exactly what I found on the hardware. I didn't have to factor in any fudge factor.

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Thanks David. I actually found the cigar pen easier to do than the Euros and the slimlines as far as form goes. The bushings I got from CSUSA were the most accurate I have had so far. Using dial calipers to measure the bushings I found they matched exactly what I found on the hardware. I didn't have to factor in any fudge factor.
Ken, If you got the bushings from CSUA where did you purchase your cigar pen kits from? The same place or ????

Thanks,
Joshua

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Yes Joshua I bought the kits at CSUSA too! I use dial calipers to measure the parts and turn to those measurements. Most of the time the bushings I've been getting weren't that accurate. These, however, matched the measurements of the parts exactly. That was a first for me.

I will usually add 0.003-0.005 to the measurements ...turn to that value and then sand to the final measurements.

[Dennis Peacock]

Morale of the story: Don't tease turners....they will get even!:D

Now that's a pretty accurate statement there Ken!!!!! :rolleyes: :p :D

BTW, beautiful pen and an awesome pic. :D

[David Drickhamer]

Thanks Ken for sharing your pen and motivating me to make a cigar pen. I've had a few kits for quite a while and just kept putting it off until I saw yours.

Mine is made with Buginga with a BLO/CA finish. This is also one of my first attempts to this kind of finish.
Dave

[Ken Fitzgerald]

David.....You nailed the form IMHO and the finish looks good.


I've been struggling for 3 hours now getting the finish on a cigar with Tiger Pradauk. I think I may have it but I'm waiting for it to cool before I buff it out.

Again.....great pen!

I thought it was easier than a slim line or a Euro. What did you think?

[David Drickhamer]

Thanks Ken

I thought it was an easy pen to turn. The hardest part was (besides finding my 10mm drill bit) figuring out how the parts went together. After the first one the rest should be a piece of cake. Before I make another one I'll pick up a set of bushings. To make this one I made a set of bushings using corian.

Are you using BLO on your CA finish?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

David, yes I'm using BLO with the CA. I've tried other CA applications and couldn't get as good a result.

I just finished the other pen and will taking be photos shortly. This is quite possibly the best pen that I've ever made. The tiger pradauk turned out beautiful. Lots of chatoyance....the cat's eye effect and pairs of little lines running along the length of the pen....bright red against the burgandy/brown and the curls...gorgeous wood.

I finally punted.....broke out the micromesh....started with 1500...worked though 12,000. Then reapplied 3 coats and it looks great.