X ray vision - Choosing Spalted Blanks For Pens

 We have an order for a custom pen and pencil set from an interesting and unusual light wood.

As the order already had a pecan and a mango pen we needed another choice.

My first crab apple pen is boring.  The outside of the blank was exciting, on one side.  But the other sides were white.  This time I looked at al sides and tried to find the best grain and spalting that will show up on the slimline blanks.

After cutting the long blank into sections I was able to look at the ends to see how well my xray vision works.

I may have made a good choice.

Come back to see the if the end results.

The Cheeto Pen

We had a request for a pink stand and a gold and Cheeto pen.

As a bonus I polished the extra and gave it away... oops now we do not have it in our cutoff collection.  Take a picture it will last longer.

The blanks is alumilite.

Used clay to make our scaled down cheetos  Rubbed between two rough bits of wood to get a rough texture.

Then we baked them.

To make sure we had enough alumilite we mixed extra and poured a money blank.

Turning it on the lathe

Some professional photos in our little photo booth.  

Nancy has taken to adding bumps and such to the pens.

We should find the cheeto fan page and upload a photo our creation.

The new owner received her pen and loves it.  
 

Real Gold Pen - Osage Orange Wand

  

Saturday I finished the Gold Pen.  A Tec 7 with gold metal and a few layers of CA over the gold flake an alumilite resin blank that Nancy made.  It will be listed at https://www.etsy.com/shop/DutchEye 

Sunday I had some fun with the threads of the big lathe.  I held a Dremel to the wood while resting on the carriage to get the finish.  Half is left hand the other half right hand threads.  The plan is to leather braid the handle area.   The tip is burnt, and sparkle red ink in the valleys, oak stain on the ridges and handle area.    The wood is osage orange, a very tough wood, my table saw was having a tough time cutting the blank.

oooooooooooo gooooooooold

Here is the leather that will be braided into the handle.

What woods do you have?

Our current lathe is a Delta Midi with added variable speed motor.

Two new pens Ryan made, both are leather, The back one is black leather without finish, aka suede finish.   The front one is recycled welding gloves.  This is the second welding glove pen he has made, this one sadly reminds me of old sports wraps...  he said the first one is his favorite pen.

Here is a how we make these blanks, cut squares and punch a hole, stack them like dimes and turn them.  We can have them as finished or suede. 

Ryan had a misshap with the glove pen, the tailstock came loose and the mandrel bent.  This might be why he stopped early.

This is a box elder burl pen.

And this is a pen with a self made blank.  Gold flake in Alumilite resin.   Nancy, being a chemical engineer in training, enjoys the making of custom blanks.  We are setting ourselves up with pressure and vacuum pots so we can provide high quality blanks and pens.

This spalted crab apple pen is another special wood we offer, Ryan grew up with many crab apples in the back yard this is from the stump of one of the apple trees.

This purchased blue blank is currently our top seller.

How quickly we collect the blanks.  

And more blanks.

And future blanks, in this case we have a Texas pecan and osage orange.  

Here is more blanks available.  Special for us is Teak from the 1960's India, sadly all the old growth is now gone so this is rare.  We have taken to labeling our woods so zoom in and read more of our 2020 stock.

Or take a look at our store  https://www.etsy.com/shop/DutchEye

 for what is available currently.  

We keep turning so there is always something new.  90% of our sales are custom orders, your can be next.

Welcome

So many projects, so little time.