The combo pen finished

The first truly SLT designed pen has made it through to fruition! It is not easy to capture in a photograph, but you can see where the purpleheart is joined to the padauk at each end:

Now that we have finally finished one of these types of pens, it will be easier to design others. There is a noticeable thinning of the pen in the lower half - this happened, I think, because the padauk is a softer wood than the purpleheart, so the chisel cut deeper into the padauk. As I work more with different woods on the same pen, I will get used to this and the pens should turn out better.

I also made a bloodwood pen last night, to go with the letter opener. That one came out fine:

One issue that I have been running into lately is that the top of the pen is not as flush with the kit (at the middle, where the center band is). I think that this is because I part off the 1/8 inch of wood before sanding down to the bushing. Then, when I do the sanding, I am not as accurate in terms of leaving the wood level with the bushing. I think, next time, I will do the rough sanding before I part off the wood, and see if this makes a difference.