COOLIBAH or COOLABAH ?

[Gary H]

Who cares? Either way, I am a great fan of Coolibah Burl timber. Am still trying out various pen kits to see which I prefer after practicing on 50 plus Streamlines. This is a Polaris kit using Coolibah Burl and finished with spray can Acrylic Lacquer. I know it's not CA, but I like the fact that it dries in 10 minutes and can be recoated in an hour. Maybe CA later.
And I have decided that I am not a great fan of the Polaris - but I had to try it :no:!

449895 449894

[Penpal]

Beaut pen Gary. I am inclined to think this penkit is really well accepted because it houses a decent refill,fits in the pocket so well.

Coolibah is a versatile timber with so many faces. You nailed it turning wise. A solid kit and a great burl mate.

Peter.

[Ironwood]

Coolabah is one of my favourites too Gary, shown off to good effect here.
The Polaris kit is probably one of the only kits on the market that I haven’t tried, I have seen a couple of them posted that I have really liked the look of, but overall not a fan of it either.
I guess I should have tried at least one so that I could have an honest opinion on it, but I will probably just take your word for it Gary.

[Gary H]

Thanks Peter and Brad for the kind comments. Almost finished the next "see if I like it" trial using the Sierra kit - so far it looks good. And regardless, it's still all a learning exercise for both pen turning and pen photography - but a very enjoyable one!

Cheers, Gary

[Ironwood]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the journey Gary.
I am pretty sure you will like the Sierra, it’s a very popular pen style, my best seller for a lot of years.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it though. I love the stylish look, but I hate the engineering/design part when it comes to the 2 push together halves, I have had too many customers that have tried to unscrew the 2 halves to change the refill, then pushed the transmission up into the top barrel and then can’t connect the 2 halves again. Give me a pen that has a proper threaded section to unscrew to change the refill, and I would be happy. There are some kits coming onto the market now that has addressed this by using a finial mounted transmission, and still using the Sierra sized tube, but I don’t think anyone is selling them in Australia yet.
Timberbits has the Lucida, which I like a lot and is one of my favourites , but the shorter size and lesser tube/blank length turns some people off.