Winestoppers, more pen commissions, and ornaments

Well, I have started to attempt winestoppers, and I am quickly realizing that it is going to be like the pens all over again - I need to obtain the relevant knowledge, and to learn all of the tricks.

First, I learned that in addition to the "starter's kit" for the winestoppers, I needed a Morse taper and a chuck. The taper goes into the headstock of the lathe (where the pen mandrel went), and the chuck is supposed to go over the taper, and stay there. The problem is that the chuck won't do that - it keeps coming off. I need to figure that out.

Meanwhile, I am back to pens for a bit. I have been commissioned for several pens by some co-workers. I am making a bloodwood click pencil, a cocobolo fountain pen, a cocobolo Classic American pen, and a bloodwood fountain pen. I also need to order some combination pen/pencils, as I have been asked to make one of those as well. I will hopefully have them all done by the time I next go into the office. I turned and sanded and polished the first three pens yesterday, but just in case the assembly of the pens does not turn out well, I wanted to enjoy how the pieces came out on the lathe. :-)

Yesterday (Saturday) was the day when I went to see a demo of the ornament making process that got me into woodturning in the first place. Of course, at the time I took that original class, I knew nothing about woodturning at all, and was not really able to remember all that much of it by the time I had the tools to do it. So, I had been waiting for this demo for a long time. This time, I took some notes and also was able to retain a lot more of what I saw and heard. I also was able to apply some of the principles that I learned to my pen-making later that day.

In addition to the bloodwood fountain pen, I am also making a couple of olivewood click pens that, if they turn out well, could be part of a holiday present.

Last night, while I was making my pens here, my wife was at a chorus event and was then at a potluck dinner with a Yankee Swap. Her gift was the cocobolo Classic American pen that I made a while ago, that came out almost orangeish. It was well received.

My wife and I have been making our holiday wish lists, and there is going to be a lot of woodturning related stuff on mine. It is a win-win situation: I might get some useful stuff to use in woodturning, and for once, I am going to be pretty easy to shop for. :-)

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.

Another visit to the office, another pen sold...

I went to my company's office yesterday (as I do every 2-3 weeks), and my one paying customer came through again! I have given away quite a few pens to co-workers, but I have also sold several pens to this one woman who buys them as presents for her family members (mainly). Yesterday, she bought the cocobolo click pen (which came out nicely - I will have to make more of those) and the olivewood click pencil, both as presents for her daughter. If nothing else, she helps me to figure out which styles of pens might be popular.

This afternoon, I also started work on another combination pen. I decided to try a pen with two different woods stacked vertically in the pen blank, rather than horizontally (the way the padauk and purpleheart were glued together). I have no idea if it will work, but I am trying a combination of bloodwood and holly (red and white) in a striped formation. I have cut the pieces, and I have glued them together, and they are currently clamped together while the glue sets. If it works, I should be able to drill the hole in the blank this evening. The final pen, if it comes out, will either celebrate Canada Day or the barber shop. :-)

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.

Progress of the combination pen

So far, so good...the combination padauk/purpleheart pen made it through the next stage. I was able to trim the barrels without any splitting of the wood. The next stop is the lathe.

Something intriguing in the ongoing mystery of the colour change of purpleheart: Trimming the ends of the blank introduces a lot of heat (via friction) to the wood. It seems that the introduction of that heat deepens the colour of the purple in the wood. It is possible that introducing heat to the blank after it is turned on the lathe (and after sanding, I guess) would deepen the colour on the finished pen.

To test the theory, I may turn a purpleheart-only blank to where it is brownish, and then put it in the microwave or oven to see if I can induce a change.

Another giveaway, and another commission

It is a good thing I saved a picture of the latest acrylic pen for posterity, because we got together with a friend of mine from Chicago today (she was in New Hampshire) and she really liked it, so I gave it to her. I have no problem with doing that if the person is likely to use the pen themselves.

My friend also gave me a commission - her husband (also a good friend of mine) collects fountain pens. I have never turned a fountain pen, but now I have a reason to. Since he reads this blog occasionally (or so I have heard), I will post my attempts at fountain pens here, and he can see if there are any that he might like.

A bit of a bummer regarding the first team-designed pen: The gluing went fine, as did the cutting of the blank, but the drilling resulted in a split of the cocobolo wood at one end. While the resulting cocobolo/ash combo blank is viable, I think I will waste the wood rather than waste a kit seeing if I can make the pen. Back to the drawing board for us. My wife had some other ideas for combination-wood pens, though, so it should not be too long before we try another one.