Sometimes, even with the best intentions...

Well, today was the day. We were away for a week, and I wanted to try to turn the combo broker pen that I have been preparing. Last night, I poured glue on all of the pen so that the wood would have more strength (a tip I got from one of my woodturning books), and today I trimmed the ends of the blank (no problem) and turned and sanded. One thing I noticed while sanding was that the surface, while smooth, was not turning smoothly on the lathe. I could not figure out why, and only when I sanded and polished the blank, and pressed the tip into the tube (unfortunately, once you have pressed one part of the pen together, you have reached the point of no return in terms of reusing the kit), did I notice that the holly wood had come apart from the rest of the pen. So...I pretty much had to give it up. It was an interesting idea, and one that I may come back to at some point, but the first try was a failure.