Nov 29

Written by: Joe Brinkman
11/29/2008 9:43 PM 

With Christmas fast approaching, I have been busy in my woodshop working on gifts.  Unlike last year, I have stayed away from any wood that might cause an allergic reaction.  This year I have been working on a number of smaller gifts for family and friends.  Fortunately none of them read blogs so I am pretty safe posting pictures ahead of time.

My wife really loves seeing the different styles of pens I have created, and my skills are rapidly improving.  Unlike my previous pens, I have switched completely to using CA glue as my finish of choice.  Using CA glue for a finish takes a lot of practice to get it right, and different woods can have varying reactions to the glue.  While the Bocote pen in the first picture was very easy to work with, the Curly Maple pen and pencil set were extremely finicky.

The black end cap and decorative center tie in nicely with the distinctive grain on this Convertible pen made of Bocote.  The pen mechanism is very smooth and has a nice spring loaded feature which retracts the pen automatically once you give it just a little twist.  The other added feature is that this pen also accepts a pencil insert so you can readily convert it for either use.

This Round Top European style pen is turned from Osage Orange with a cross grain cut which further shows off the grain of the wood.  The wood displays a distinctive chatoyance effect when rotated.  In order to minimize tearout and to help stabilize the wood as I was basically turning end grain, I had to constantly flood the wood with CA glue during the turning process.  This stiffened the wood fibers enough to allow me to get a very nice finish off the tool.

This pen was a bit of a challenge as this was my first time using this kit which had a larger barrel than any of my other pens.  This short Patriot pen was created using Marblewood which has maroon streaks of color with a yellow/orange background.   The nice tight grain of this wood made it easy to turn without much tearout.

 

The pen made of Purpleheart is another example of a slim European style pen kit.  Although it has a striking color, there is not much grain pattern to speak of.

This is a pen and pencil set made from curly maple.  Because of the wood used, this was a very difficult set to make.  The curly maple tears out very easily since you are constantly presented with grain running in all directions.  I used lots of CA glue to try and prevent the tearout and switched to sandpaper once I was close to my desired shape and size.  Also, because of the curly grain pattern, the wood wouldn’t absorb the CA glue evenly.  This was a mixed blessing as I spent hours working on getting the finish perfected.  In the end, I drastically improved the quality and consistency of my finishes.  By using a thin CA glue to seal the wood followed by a medium CA glue, I was able to build-up the glue to about .5 mm in thickness.  Even though the surface was uneven at that point, I was able to turn it back down to round and buff out the finish to the desired gloss.

 

Not everything turned this holiday season has been pens.  I have a few other projects which I have tackled like this Osage Orange platter.  Prior to getting my new bandsaw this fall, I would not have been able to create this piece without a lot of difficulty and wasted wood.  I personally have found that the presence of a bandsaw in my shop has added to the size of wood that I collect and store as I am now better able to process the wood for turning. I am now getting through a large pile of wood which had been accumulating for the last couple of years.

All in all, I am very happy with how my latest pen creations are turning out.  After having turned about 25 pens, I finally have the system down pretty well.  The finishes on my last 3 or 4 pens has been a breeze to apply and what used to take an hour or more can now be done in 10-20 minutes.  I personally prefer the high-gloss appearance of the CA glue finish when polished with micromesh sand paper up to 12000 grit.  This produces a finish with absolutely no visible scratches.  The other added benefit is that the finish is very durable and won’t degrade from constant handling.