Thread: My Return to Pen Turning

Because of the economic downturn I have been retrenched after 12 months of being back in the workforce.

This has afforded me the opportunity to go back into the shed and turn a few pens. My first effort was to turn a couple of Sedonas from Gary Pye one Black and one in White which I decided to copy Sam and make these for my youngest daughter who is getting married on Anzac Day. Same as Sam I bought a box from Timber Bits to put them in. Sedonas are the last two in the picture.

My brother wanted a Black Roller Ball pen dressed in Gold so I made an Executive from Gary Pye. But because the black Acrylic blank wasn't dense enough because the brass tube showed through on the black Sedona I painted the tube with black nail polish and the the inside of the blank with black acrylic paint which made a huge difference in the finish.

I then made some click Sierras. The first one I made from a piece of Mulga I got from a friend and I finished it with CA/BLO. I wasn't very happy with this because it ended up dull and lifeless. I gave it to the friend that gave me the Mulga so it isn't in the picture.

The first one in the picture is from Mulga and I finished it with Shellawax Cream which gave it a more natural shine but not glossy.

The next two I finished using DJ's method using about 20 coats of CA and sanded to 12,000 grit then polished up with PolyGlaze Diamond finish. One is Mulga and the other one is Redgum. Although the CA finish gives a great shine I found it difficult to eliminate very fine ridges in the CA and I found a couple of spots where the CA delaminated on the ends of the blank. More practise needed I suppose. The the CA finish I feel looks a bit plasticy.

The forth one in the picture is where I tried out Saw Dust Sniffers Reo steel pen.

I put the piece of reo in the chuck and started drilling it in the lathe. I used a 25/64" drill which was the nearest I had to the inside diameter of the brass tube of the kit. I got half way through drilling it and when I pulled the drill bit out because I hadn't lubricated it, it had overheated and turned it blue and has probably wrecked the drill bit and when I tried the insert in the hole although it was a neat fit it wasn't a press fit so at that stage I gave it away.

After a few days I decided to go back to it and I finished drilling it with a drill bit 1/64" smaller lubricating it this time but as it turned out this was fractionally too small and I had to fiddle with the insert because it squashed it when I pressed it into the reo. I probably need some number or letter drill bits to make the hole the correct size to the inside diameter of the brass tube.

To finish this pen off I epoxyed the clip end into the reo.